The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Center for International Cooperation (MASHAV) recently organized five medical and agricultural instruction courses in Uzbekistan.
As Ofer Moreno, First Secretary at the Embassy states: "There is no doubt that that the MASHAV undertaking is very much appreciated in Uzbekistan, and is frequently mentioned. It is our duty to assist the people who have always welcomed the Jewish people in difficult times as well as good."
Since the main international foreign aid efforts are focused on the eastern provinces of the Fergana Valley, the Israeli Embassy intentionally concentrates on aid activities in the western regions as well. These include areas in the Khorezm Province and the autonomous republic of Karakalapakstan in the north-western part of the country which are suffering from an ecological disaster due to the drying up of the Aral Sea.
"Praise to Allah and the Israeli doctors" is a phrase commonly heard among the 150 patients whose eyesight was restored last December due to the skills of eye-surgeons Dr. Dan Sachs and Dr. Emanuel Schwalb of the Sheba Medical Center's Goldschleger Eye Institute. MASHAV sent the two surgeons to Nukus, the capital of Karakalapakstan. Most of the patients treated by the two doctors were either totally blind or had an advanced cataract condition.
Other medical activities included consultation and instruction regarding uterine cancer. These consultations have been ongoing for the past four years, as the local doctors had trouble correctly diagnosing the disease, often causing mistreatment. Dr. Graciella Lahovizky, a specialist in cytology and pathology, was sent by MASHAV as a consultant to Nukus and to Urganch, capital city of Khorezm Province, to advise and instruct the local doctors on this subject. As a direct result of this aid, the Uzbeki Ministry of Health intends to build a team that will specialize in this area and instruct other local doctors.
Over 100 nurses, doctors and administrative personnel from the province participated in a conference held in Urganch at the beginning of December. Also present were nurses from the Fergana, Tashkent and Namangan provinces, who addressed the conference on applicative aspects of their studies. This was part of the nurse training project - another veteran MASHAV program initiated in 2001. In cooperation with other international agencies, the project's aim is to promote organizational change and modernization of the country's medical infrastructure through a group of nurses trained to implement the new medical approach. In the first training stage, groups of Uzbeki nurses came to Israel for training. The second stage comprised teams from Israeli nursing schools sent to Uzbekistan for continued training and reinforcing the skills and techniques learned in Israel.
In the agricultural field, MASHAV conducted courses on agricultural produce in Tashkent and Samarkand for local businessmen and students from the Academy of Economics and Business Administration. The course included both lectures and on-site demonstrations of practical applications, and was organized in cooperation with the Uzbeki Department of Trade and Industry. In addition, a workshop regarding use of water was held in Tashkent at the beginning of December. Shimon Tal, the former head of Israel's water commission participated in this workshop as a guest of Prof. Duchovny, coordinator of the five-state Central Asian Regional Water Commission.