The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2011

A F S A N E W S 44 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / J U L Y - A UGU S T 2 0 1 1 2011 AFSA OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AWARD WINNERS F ifty years ago, the Soviets opened Tirnova, a rehabilitation center for children suffering from tuberculosis. In 2009 Charla Chaudhry, a Foreign Service family member in Chisinau who is one of two winners of this year’s Avis Bohlen Award, walked into Tirnova with her colleagues from the International Women’s Club of Moldova. “It was like going through a time warp. It seemed nothing had changed since the facility first opened. I mean nothing ,” Chaudhry recalls. “No running water, no clean drinking water, no doors, cemented-shut windows, mold, leaking roof, completely dilapidated — you get the pic- ture.” At the time, Chaudhry was president of the club’s grants com- mittee, which administers an active charitable outreach program. Tirnova was one of many places the committee had visited while seeking out beneficiaries for the club’s small grants. For Chaudhry, it was a place of lost children; a place the world had forgotten. It grabbed her and wouldn’t let her go. “I didn’t come to Moldova with a plan to do this. I just fell into it. One visit, and I felt I couldn’t walk away,” she explains. When she got home that night, she told her husband, U.S. Ambassador Asif Chaudhry, that she needed a lot of money: $2 million, to be exact. The rebirth of the center began with a $10,000 allotment from the Women’s Club for a new girls’ bathroom. At this moment, Chaudhry realized she was going to be in this for the long haul and needed a strategy to accomplish the task. “The project began to take on a life of its own. Things started to go full throttle. This was all new territory for me,” Chaudhry says excitedly, with an obvious passion in her voice. “I knew I had to ratchet up the game. I decided to take my pictures and story to anyone who would listen and look.” Chaudhry believes that her passion served to inspire others who, in turn, became passionate about the project. “Serendipity had a lot to do with how it all came together: the right place, the right time, the right people,” she says. “Everyone was on the same page, and we all ran with it.” Within months, Chaudhry had assembled a group of major donors, helping hands and inspired partners — including the State Department’s Humanitarian Assistance Fund, the U.S. European Command, the state of North Carolina, the Latter Day Saints Church Humanitarian Mission, the Rotary Club, Moldovan volunteers and many others. Together, they raised more than $600,000 in cash and supplies. The club then assembled a team of architects, engineers and con- tractors to set priorities, draw up plans and define a timeline. Chaudhry attended all of the logis- tical meetings with the team and was pivotal in seeing that deadlines were met and that all participants were doing their jobs with due dili- gence. Her engagement with local senior government officials brought additional critical support. Today, more than 200 children at Tirnova have running water and new bathrooms, mold-free and freshly painted walls, computers for their new class- rooms, new windows and roofs, sports equipment and play areas. And as Chaudhry says, “…most of all, we have sent them the message that they are not forgot- ten, and that they are indeed valuable. Here in Moldova, we have remembered how good it feels to take care of one another.” The nomination of Charla Chaudhry for the Avis Bohlen Award concludes: “It is pivotal to note that Mrs. Chaudhry’s efforts with this project didn’t just radically change the living conditions of the children from the center; she supported the diplomatic relationship with the Republic of Moldova in immeasurable terms. The fact that the spouse of the U.S. ambassador engaged in this particular project — and many others —with such vigor and succeeded with such effect, will have a lasting impact on the U.S. bilateral partnership with the government of Moldova.” Just before the recent dedication ceremony of the Tirnova Center, Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat called Chaudhry to ask what he could bring. The Avis Bohlen Award FOR A FOREIGN SERVICE FAMILY MEMBER Charla Chaudhry Charla Chaudhry (left) and colleagues, during a recent visit to the Tirnova tuberculosis rehabilitation center. “We have sent them the message that they are not forgotten, and that they are indeed valuable.”