Working for USAID helped me break free from what I learned behind the Iron Curtain

Growing up behind the Iron Curtain, deep inside the Soviet zone of influence during the height of the Cold War, I saw the world and my place as a simple binary: East vs. West, black vs. white, good vs. evil.

The East German state propaganda was inescapable and thorough.

The Soviet Union designated every East German, such as myself, as belonging to them — as they would say, one of “ours.” The rest of the world was on “their” side, meaning the United States, along with the West.

Reducing the complexities of political and economic systems to solely “right vs. wrong” was a way for the Soviet-installed East German dictatorship to keep its adolescent generations acquiescent. With “our side” always being the “right side of history,” I grew up eager to please my teachers.

Later, with the new freedoms of the post-Berlin Wall era, I resolved to break free from my upbringing and learn all about “them” — our West German compatriots. I wasn’t the only one. While a student in Russia in the early 1990s, I witnessed how Soviet-controlled minds likewise freed themselves and reached out eagerly to engage with the rest of the world.

And finally, as a young professional, I resolutely refused to pigeonhole my thinking into an “ours vs. theirs” framework.

Despite my own transformation, I would eventually encounter this way of thinking regularly as I made my way in the post-Soviet world.

Determined to be an ambassador of goodwill, I landed my dream job implementing a large-scale medical aid program that was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with foundations and private donors. For close to a decade, our team collected refurbished lifesaving medical equipment and clinical supplies from the Greater Philadelphia area and distributed those items directly to clinics throughout the impoverished former Soviet Union.

To illustrate the impact, it was the refurbished Siemens mammography machine sourced that way that was critical in diagnosing the inexplicably high breast cancer rate among women in pockets of Armenia’s society. And the heart-and-lung machine we installed in a remote Uzbek hospital’s surgery ward — along with a critical backup generator for electricity — were lifesavers.

Equally important, from an aid perspective, we hired and trained local engineers to maintain the equipment and procure replacement parts and supplies — thus forging emerging business relationships and fortifying the local biomedical engineering sector. This USAID partnership program also benefited U.S. institutions, as stateside equipment donors scored tax write-offs.

Critical to the program’s lasting achievements were the U.S. doctors who donated their time to establish facility-to-facility partnerships with the recipient organizations and trained the foreign staff on the sophisticated technology.

The impact was profound: lifesaving equipment, new skills, and a lasting ripple effect of progress in overseas local healthcare systems. It was an example of a collaborative win-win situation for both sides of the geographic and ideological divide. It proved that meaningful assistance and collaboration can transcend ideological boundaries — bringing tangible benefits to all and healing more than just bodies.

On a personal level, as the program officer, I relished acting as a bridge to doctors and their patients in countless underresourced clinics.

My fluent Russian and upbringing in an Eastern Bloc country used to place me squarely on “their side,” but that distinction was now palpably withering away. No longer would local medical staff press me for my allegiance by asking, “Are you one of ours or theirs?”

Along my personal and professional journey, I’ve witnessed how America’s soft power has undone decades of division and has led to lasting intergenerational change. Quite literally, this aid program helped heal the hearts of patients and turn the minds of many to recognize themselves as part of a shared humanity.

Indisputably, USAID has been a vital tool in making America great.

While easing suffering and increasing opportunities and dignity for those around the world, it has, at the same time, burnished America’s reputation as a beacon of humanitarian caring.

Paradoxically, it turns out that America’s unselfish giving is what best serves America’s self-interest.

Squandering this hard-earned goodwill by dismantling established functioning USAID programs throws us back into that world remembered from my childhood behind the Iron Curtain — one of distrustful division and hostile opposition.

Manuela Sieber-Messick holds a master’s degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University. In the early 2000s, she managed medical aid programs that were based in Philadelphia and developed the healthcare infrastructures of formerly communist nations. To promote intercultural understanding, she later cofounded PhillyKinder, a nonprofit language-enrichment program for children. Sieber-Messick resides with her husband and three children in the Greater Philadelphia area, where she teaches, writes, and guest lectures.