The Humanitarians

Jackie comes to humanitarian work through a process of elimination. That is, it beats staying home in Milwaukee with her boring husband. Bouncing around within an American organization, JAS, she eventually lands in Uzebekitan, where she heads a project to treat patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis. There she realizes that many of her co-workers, both ex-pats and locals, are no more motivated than she is. Humanitarianism is a job, as unrewarding as any other. Jackie holds things...
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Jackie comes to humanitarian work through a process of elimination. That is, it beats staying home in Milwaukee with her boring husband. Bouncing around within an American organization, JAS, she eventually lands in Uzebekitan, where she heads a project to treat patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis. There she realizes that many of her co-workers, both ex-pats and locals, are no more motivated than she is. Humanitarianism is a job, as unrewarding as any other. Jackie holds things together as best she can, yet not a single patient is cured during her tenure. The reasons are many, including the murderous thugs who run Uzbekistan and are using JAS as a publicity stunt to further their own agenda. But after her husband visits as an engineering consultant and sneers at the poor and downtrodden Uzbek people, Jackie finally begins to sympathize with their plight. So much so that when one of the project's patients is disappeared by the government, she throws herself completely into finding him. She does so despite warnings from both her staff and government officials, and the results are catastrophic.