In 1989 she helped Georgian colleagues establish the Georgian Medical Association, the first physician organization of its kind in the Soviet
Union. She was named an honorary member. In 1991 she received an urgent fax from Georgian Medical Association physicians saying the Russians had pulled out of Georgia and stripped their hospitals bare of equipment and supplies. They feared their patients
would die and asked if she could help. With support from the California Air National Guard and other groups, she organized more than 50 airlifts to meet those urgent needs.
In 1992, she founded ACTS International in Mountain View, Calif., as the first American non-governmental organization working in the country of Georgia. She took a
leave of absence from her job and spent the next four years on the ground in Georgia, organizing programs and structure to receive and deliver aid and developing partnerships. ACTS-Georgia, the organization’s in-country chapter, was established as Georgia's
first nonprofit humanitarian aid organization, with a goal of institutional capacity building and enabling Georgians to help Georgians.
In 1994, the Georgian Parliament awarded a letter of commendation to the ACTS-Georgia team for “Service to the Nation.” A sister-city relationship was formed between
Kutaisi and Columbia, Missouri, that resulted in sister university and medical, dental and nursing school agreements. Several delegations from each country visited the other as part of medical, educational and cultural exchanges. Because of ACTS' work, the
specialty of neonatalogy was introduced to Georgia, and a University of Missouri physician taught Georgian ophthalmologists to begin performing corneal transplants.
In the 2000s, with grants from the U.S. State Department and other agencies along with local contributions, ACTS has provided training and support for medical, public
health and education programs. For two decades, more than $10 million annually in medical and food aid was obtained, shipped and distributed to more than 100,000 vulnerable Georgians.
From 2001-2005, Columbia, Missouri, residents participated in drives to supply Kutaisi children with much-needed iodized salt because many were suffering from development
problems and medical issues such as goiters due to the unavailability of dietary iodine at a price affordable to Georgian families.
A $1.1 million, five-year grant awarded in 2004 by USAID helped ACTS identify and address causes of high child mortality rates in Georgia. The information learned is
still being applied today as ACTS-affiliated physicians in Tbilisi train physicians, nurses and midwives in poverty-stricken Kvemo Kartli in resuscitating and stabilizing newborns that are struggling to breathe.
Dr. Blair was in Georgia during the Russia invasion in 2008 and, as a trauma surgeon, personally attended to injured patients. She organized airlifts and sea container
shipments with humanitarian aid, medications, food, hygiene kits and donated hospital equipment for the post-war relief recovery efforts. She also worked with Rotarians to create an art therapy program for children affected by the horrors of war.
Also ongoing is the ACTS-Lions Ronald James, M.D., Georgian Diabetic Children's Camp, which was established in 1996 and will move to its new permanent home in Dmanisi
in 2019. The camp was founded by Dr. Blair and University of Missouri pediatric endocrinologist Ron James after they learned Georgian children diagnosed with Type I diabetes lived only 10 years on average. Since the camp opened, more than 1,200 young people
have participated, and all are still alive and thriving, many as young adults with families of their own.
ACTS has transported more than $350 million in donated medications and medical supplies to Georgia. These efforts have made 4.3 million imprints on lives helped with
food, hygiene kits and medical care, as well as the 220,000 children who have received new shoes, Dr. Blair led the introduction of both Rotary International and Lions International civic clubs in Georgia.