Rx for reconciliation.

EARLY IN HIS MEDICAL TRAINING, DR. ERIC SUBA learned something that has haunted him since: Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in developing countries. From his own work, he knew that cervical cancer could easily be prevented with Pap screening. The problem? Pap smears are unavailable in most developing nations.

But Suba has resolved to change that. After completing his training and beginning a career in pathology, he set to the task. The first big question was--quite literally--where in the world to begin. Of dozens of possible countries he chose Vietnam.

It was a decision that stemmed from a basic desire to right a wrong: "I'd read a great deal about the wars that had taken place there," Suba says, "and I felt that we Americans had a clear obligation to assist a society that we had once tried to destroy."

Through his research he's realized that the bitter effects of the Vietnam War are even more far-reaching than he had initially suspected. For example, cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection. During the Vietnam War, as in most wars, there was an increase in both commercial sex activity and sexual promiscuity, factors that likely led to an increase in HPV in the Vietnamese population. In fact, records show a clear increase in cervical cancer among Vietnamese women following the war. The discovery of this war-cancer connection has only cemented Suba's resolve to build bridges between the two countries.

In 1992 he learned about Friendship Bridge, a nonprofit organization that facilitates physician-training visits to Vietnam. They provided him with the fax numbers for two cancer hospitals, and, with his friend Dr. Stephen Raab, Suba left for Vietnam in 1994 on what was to become the first of many visits. It was an exhilarating cultural experience for Suba.

"It was almost like being a child again," he recalls. "Several times a day I would see or hear or smell something that I would not have imagined."

Undaunted by the language barrier, he and Raab visited cancer hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, connecting with physicians, sharing their vision, and establishing friendships. "The most important thing I learned on that first trip was that there were gifted, idealistic, hardworking physicians in Vietnam with whom it would be a pleasure to work," says Suba.

Back at home in San Francisco he began to sponsor training visits in which Vietnamese doctors came to the United States to learn techniques for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Many of the doctors stayed as guests in his own home. The program expanded, and in 1996 Suba, Raab, and Vietnamese doctors Nguyen Chan Hung and Nguyen Ba Duc established the Viet-American Cervical Cancer Prevention Project (VACCP). By 1999 Pap screening had begun in one district of Ho Chi Minh City, and since then screening services have been established at five more sites in Vietnam.

THE VIETNAM WAR IS A SENSITIVE topic, particularly in Vietnam, Suba says, but he hopes that his foundation's work is helping to promote reconciliation between the cultures in its own way.

And to achieve reconciliation, humility is a necessary ingredient. This is a key aspect of Suba's faith and work. He says that he never understood the first Beatitude until he went to Vietnam. "'Blessed are the poor in spirit' means to me, among other things, that we owe it to ourselves and to one another to doubt our own virtue." He describes the Vietnam War itself as a tragedy that happened because too many people "failed to doubt the virtue of the cause to which they had committed themselves."

In the future Suba hopes to help other countries develop sustainable cervical cancer prevention services. For now he's focusing on Vietnam, where what began as a simple mission is saving the lives of an ever-growing number of women. For Suba, his story is really a lesson about the critical importance of letting ourselves be guided by our dreams even if they seem utterly impossible.

"Very often, nothing else besides dreaming is going to work when it comes to helping other people," he says.

DR. ERIC SUBA PHYSICIAN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 

PARISH: St. Dominic.

MY FIRST JOB: Washing dishes.

MY FIRST CAR: A Ford Pinto.

THE WORST ADVICE MY PARENTS EVER GAVE ME: To move back in with them while I went to medical school ... or was that my idea?

MY FAVORITE PART OF SCRIPTURE: The genuine friendship between Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot.

A WORD TO LIVE BY: Listen.

GINNY MOYER, a writer and teacher in San Mateo, California.