The National Guard State Partnership Program  links U.S. States with partner countries. The program's goals reflect an evolving international affairs mission for the National Guard using the unique civil-military nature of the Guard. The State Partners actively participate in a host of engagement activities ranging from bilateral consultations, to military familiarization events, civic leader visits, to numerous medical and humanitarian events.

 

The North Carolina-Moldova Partnership was formalized on April 22, 1999; the North Carolina-Botswana Partnership was formalized in February, 2008.

The Office of Global Health in the Gillings School of Global Public Health coordinates the School's involvement in these two programs. If you have questions or would like additional information, please email the OGH or call 919-966.3564.

 

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Flyer summarizing Gillings School of Global Public Health's work in Moldova 

 

Initiation of Public Health Involvement in the NC-Moldova State Partnership Program

Former U.S. Ambassador to Moldova Michael Kirby and N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall asked the UNC Gillings School of  Global Public Health to join the partnership to provide guidance in public health-related matters. With funding from the Office of Global Health, Dean Barbara Rimer sent Brenda Motsinger, the school's director of special projects, to Moldova for a week in October 2007 to explore the public health issues and needs in Moldova and to identify possible opportunities for collaboration.

 

To continue this exploration, in January 2008, the School hosted a NC-Moldova Health Summit, sponsored by the NC-Moldova Bilateral Affairs Committee, which was attended by former US Ambassador to Moldova Michael Kirby and the former Moldovan Minister of Health, Dr. Ion Ababii.  

In January 2010, the state of North Carolina and the country of Moldova renewed its Bilateral Agreement for another five years. This is the third renewal of the agreement since it was first signed in April, 1999.

Shortly after the renewal of the Bilateral Agreement, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Dentistry hosted a half-day meeting for a delegation of Moldovan Parliamentarians. This meeting provided public health and dental faculty and students to give an overview and updates on the work they have been doing in Moldova for the last 10 years.

Other participants in the meeting included the Greensboro Jewish Federation, the Carolina Adoption Agency and Rotary International.

The Moldovan Parliamentarian Delegation was hosted for a week's visit in North Carolina by the International Affairs Council of North Carolina, based in Raleigh.

 

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During the January 2008 NC-Moldova Health Summit, Ambassador Kirby suggested that students involved in UNC Engineers Without Borders (EWB) work with Peace Corps volunteers on water and sanitation issues. This led to a proposal from EWB, followed by two video conferences, between the School and Moldova, and finally a reconnaissance visit in October 2008. The faculty advisor to EWB, Don Laura, PhD, and Phil Singer, PhD, both professors of environmental science and engineering, Eugenia Eng, PhD, professor of health behavior and health education and Kari Leech, a student leader in EWB, all visited Moldova to assess the water-sanitation-health education situation and prepare a formal proposal for  the School's assistance.

 

The proposed project intended to use students from the UNC chapter of EWB and graduate students from health behavior and health education to: 1) improve water and sanitation facilities in some of Moldova's 1,500+ elementary and secondary schools and 2) develop and implement an improved health education curriculum for Moldovan schools.  The proposed project is part of a much larger effort, led by UNICEF. UNC's proposal targets a handful of schools with the same general goal as the UNICEF project but with additional efforts to build and strengthen local village and school capacities to ensure sustainability of the improvements.

 

A group of EWB students returned to Moldova in Summer 2009 and visited 23 elementary schools in the  Gagauzia and  Orhei regions of Moldova to assess the water and sanitation conditions, including water sources, indoor bathrooms and latrines, and hand washing facilities. In November 2009, the EWB students shared their report with the Bilateral Affairs Office in Moldova and made recommendations for improvements in specific sites. EWB proposed their involvement in building ventilated improved pit latrines and handwashing facilities, as well as providing hygiene education to the students.

 

A student trip is planned for summer 2010 to provide hygiene education in two of the schools recommended by the NC National Guard: one is in the Russian-speaking section of Moldova, the other in a Romanian-speaking section of Moldova.

 

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In December of 2008, Dean Harris, JD, professor of health policy and management, spent one week in Moldova to give lectures at the Ministry of Health, School of Medicine and two major hospitals. His topics included quality of care, patient safety and medical errors, risk management, comparative health systems and health reform and ethical issues in a global perspective.

 

In addition, he had several meetings with officials of the Ministry of Health who were working on projects such as a system for licensing physicians and a system  for compensating patients for injuries. Professor Harris plans to provide advice and feedback to Ministry officials. He has been requested by Moldova's School of Public Health to collaborate with them to provide distance education.

 

Professor Harris will return to Moldova in March 2010 to meet with colleagues from the  Center for Health Policies and Studies (Centrul Pentru Politici Si Analize in Sanatate). 

Bill Gentry, director of the community preparedness and health policy program in the School's department of health policy and management, accompanied the North Carolina National Guard on a mission to promote regional cooperation and interoperability between Black Sea area nations. Mr. Gentry assisted in facilitating and evaluating a multi-national exercise program that included participants from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. The exercise program was designed to increase disaster awareness in the region by familiarizing participants with all aspects of managing a disaster -- from pre-disaster planning to response, recovery and mitigation.  The scenario for the exercise was a natural disaster-based event conducted in a table-top format. The exercise was conducted over five days in Chisinau, Moldova. More on Mr. Gentry's work in Moldova.

 

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UNC Dental Faculty and Students Partner with Moldova

For UNC Students, these missions provide a window into the lives of those who are less fortunate than themselves, an opportunity to learn and grow in a different dental setting, and for many, a new commitment to provide care for underserved communities and persons in their future careers. 

 

For information on the UNC School of Dentistry's work in Moldova, please contact Rick Mumford, Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Dentistry

 

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Area Studies Expertise: UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies

A Title VI U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center (NRC), the joint UNC-Duke Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies (CSEEES) promotes the study of our dynamic region of the world and its languages.  The Center supports graduate student and faculty research, conferences, seminars, visiting scholars, teacher training, and public outreach programs. 

UNC's Master's in Russian and East European Studies (MA RUES) Curriculum is administered by CSEEES.  Partnering with other units on campus to provide a range of interdisciplinary course offerings, the Curriculum offers students opportunities to deepen their knowledge of the histories, cultures, institutions, and languages of our region.  University of North Carolina students may study Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian languages and seek some U.S. Department of Education Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS) funding to do so.  Additionally, Romanian language is offered at Duke University.  Faculty members are distinguished in their research, teaching, service, and professional activities.  The Curriculum has demonstrated success in preparing graduates for professional careers in areas vital to national security since its first cohort entered in 1999.  Graduates have impressive careers in the U.S. State Department, U.S. Army, U.S. security organizations, international organizations, educational institutions, and the private sector.

The Curriculum benefits from the Slavic and East European Collections housed at University Library.  Currently, the Slavic and East European holdings at UNC Chapel Hill are approximately 500,000 volumes.  Several electronic databases and the Andre Savine Collection complement the collection, as does UNC's unique Cooperative Collection Agreement with Duke University Libraries.

CSEEES and the Curriculum in Russian and East European Studies provide area studies expertise to the North Carolina-Moldova State Partnership Program.  The broader CSEEES community provides a platform for exchange as well as fellowship and grant-writing initiatives related to the partnership.  For example, CSEEES faculty advise students seeking Fulbright grants to research or teach in Moldova.  Last year CSEEES and the Carolina Women's Center co-sponsored a round table on women's health issues in Moldova.   Moderated by Brenda McAdams Motsinger, the forum featured Dr. Jane Perrin speaking on domestic violence, Major Robert Carver of the North Carolina National Guard, providing an overview of the North Carolina-Moldova Partnership, Dr. Sharon Weir discussing HIV/AIDs, and Anson Dorrance relating his efforts to promote women's empowerment and resilience through sport.  This interdisciplinary dialogue created dialogue between specialists and area studies experts in global women's health.

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The North Carolina - Botswana Partnership initiative was formalized in 2008 by the Republic of Botswana and the State of North Carolina. The State Partnership Program is based upon an agreement to link these two states together to better facilitate cooperation in the areas of civil emergency operations, expansion of markets, cultural, scientific and academic exchanges, and the coordination of humanitarian efforts of many governmental and non-governmental organizations.

 

Disaster Management Training

 

Bill Gentry works with a breakout group from the Botswana Defense Force.

Bill Gentry, Director of the Community Preparedness and Health Policy Program in Health Policy and Management in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, accompanied the North Carolina National Guard on a mission to Botswana to familiarize Botswana Defense Forces (BDF) and civil preparedness authorities with the management and coordination between civil and military entities during disaster management crisis in March 2010. The training event included 26 Botswana Defense Force and 4 civilian emergency responders.  The intent of the training was to use the week to establish the core disaster management principles of hazard assessment and vulnerability, Incident Command System (ICS) utilization, disaster planning, and resource allocation through "force packages."

 

The March visit to Botswana focused on:

• Familiarizing the BDF in disaster management allowing them to formalize their own disaster management teams.
• Incorporation of Public Affairs into overall information dissemination program to both military and public.
• Incorporation of pre-positioning and sustainability of logistical forces and material. Integration of local governments and civilian entities into disaster management programs.

 Mr. Gentry also travels to Moldova in support of their Partnership Program initiative with North Carolina.