The Open World Program’s delegation of Health Professionals from Russia, hosted by the Falls Church Rotary Club, are pictured above with John Karickhoff (second from left) when they visited his office on Dec. 3. With him are (left to right) Pavel Pavlov, Vera Sukoruchkina, Natalya Amosova, Olga Komarova, Tatyana Smelskaya, and Galina Sorokina. Rotary Director of International Service Carol Pierstorff coordinated the delegation’s visit from Dec. 2 – 10.

The group attended a seminar at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, and learned about American health care first-hand with meetings at hospitals, clinics and offices across the Washington, D.C. area. Rotary International serves as a local hosting organization for the Open World Program, which is a congressionally sponsored program that brings emerging leaders from Russia, Ukraine and other Eurasian states to the United States in order to give them first hand exposure to the American system of participatory democracy and free enterprise. (Photo: Courtesy John Karickhoff)