[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 3, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SALUTE TO DR. GREGORY SPIRAKIS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM H. PUTNAM

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 3, 2003

  Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, when Dr. Gregory Spirakis' 14-month-old 
baby, Petey, developed meningitis, the child was given antibiotics and 
recovered fully. When 14-month-old Andre Chionizilli of Balti, Moldova, 
developed meningitis, he lost his hearing because he had no access to 
antibiotics.
  To help children like Andre, Dr. Spirakis, a constituent of mine from 
Lakeland, Florida, began a humanitarian mission in Moldova, one of the 
former Soviet Republics. Dr. Spirakis has made two more trips to Balti, 
one of the cities of Lakeland's Sister Cities.
  During the second trip in August 2000, Dr. Spirakis, with financial 
support from the First Aviation Sertoma club of Lakeland, brought 115 
hearing aids and 90 pounds of antibiotics and started a mobile 
audiology program.
  Dr. Spirakis began traveling to Moldova to treat hearing-impaired 
children in 1997 after meeting Dr. Iurii Lobeev, his Moldovan 
counterpart, in a medical exchange program in the United States. Dr. 
Spirakis and his wife, both audiologists, have made several visits to 
Moldova, consulting and treating more than 170 children.
  In 2001, Dr. Spirakis founded the Moldovan Children's Audiology 
Foundation (MCAF) and provided financial and technical support for the 
establishment of the Hearing Protection Center in the city of Belts, 
Moldova.
  The Center provides hearing and medical services for children with 
disabilities and operates a medical care unit fully equipped, through 
Dr. Spirakis's support, to solve children's hearing problems.
  Dr. Spirakis has personally provided training to his Moldovan 
counterparts at the Center, Dr. Iurii Lobeev and Dr. Victor Vrabie, and 
has assisted them in traveling to Lakeland and throughout the State of 
Florida to learn American techniques for treating disabled children, 
developing their capacity to perform audiograms for children, choose 
treatment strategies, and provide other operations that were previously 
only available in a specialized hospital in Chisinau, the capital.
  Through the combined efforts of the United States Agency for 
International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of State, the 
MCAF, and Counterpart International, a container of medical equipment, 
consumables, school supplies, and furniture, valued at nearly $48,000, 
was delivered to the Hearing Protection Center on October 1, 2002. With 
this delivery, the Center now has a state-of-the-art audiology clinic 
and provides services to the city of Belts and throughout the 
surrounding rural areas. The Center provides services to a larger 
number of constituents including newborn children, veterans, and 
pensioners with hearing disabilities.
  The U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Europe and 
Eurasia will be honoring Dr. Gregory Spirakis at a dinner on Tuesday, 
June 17, 2003 to recognize his efforts to improve the lives of people 
around the world and salute his continued commitment to foreign 
assistance. I would like to congratulate Dr. Spirakis for his work and 
express my thanks to him for his dedication and commitment to children 
around the world.

                          ____________________