- Claire Bertschinger
-
Dame Claire Bertschinger DBE is a Swiss-British nurse and activist in advocacy on behalf of the suffering people in the developing world.
Contents
Biography
The daughter of a Swiss father and British mother,[1] she was brought up in Sheering on the Hertfordshire/Essex borders.[2]
Dyslexic, she could barely read or write until she was 14.[1] After her parents got a television in the 1960s, one of the first films she watched was The Inn of the Sixth Happiness starring Ingrid Bergman playing the role of Gladys Aylward, an English missionary to China in the 1930s who is caught up in the Japanese invasion. Bertschinger thought: “I could do that. That’s what I want to do.”[1]
After graduating with an MSc degree in Medical Anthropology from Brunel University in 1997, Bertschinger has an honorary DSocSci degree from Brunel University in 2008.[3]
Career
After training and working as a nurse in the U.K., Bertschinger became a medic for the Scientific Exploration Society expedition to Panama, Papua New Guinea and Sulawesi.
After this experience, she joined the emergency disaster relief group of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), allowed to attended war locations thanks to her dual-citizenship which would have excluded a British citizen. Through this she has worked in over a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Liberia.
She then returned to Switzerland and the head quarters of the ICRC in Geneva as training officer in the Health Division, with the personal goal to learn French. She was also nurse on "Operation Drake," a round the world scientific expedition led by the British explorer John Blashford-Snell.
Bertschinger then joined the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she is presently Course Director for the Diploma in Tropical Nursing.[4]
Bertschinger is an ambassador the African Children's Educational Trust, and a voluntary worker in the UK for the charity Age Concern.[4]
Ethiopia
In 1984, Bertschinger was working as an ICRC field nurse located in Mekele, the capital of Tigray Province, Ethiopia during the famine of 1984. She ran two feeding centres which could only take in 60 to 70 new children at a time whilst thousands more were in need of food. As a young nurse, she had to decide who would be the lucky enough to receive food; those she couldn't help had little hope of survival:[5]
“ I felt like a Nazi commandant, deciding who would live and who would die. Playing God broke my heart ” When a BBC News crew appeared with reporter Michael Buerk, Bertschinger willingly told her story to highlight the problems. While Buerk thought Bertschinger was a heroine and edited his report to highlight this, Bertschinger initially thought Buerk was an arrogant “prat” asking “stupid questions.”[5] The subsequent news report filed by Buerk and broadcast on 23 October 1984, inspired the watching Bob Geldof to launch Band Aid. This was followed by Live Aid in 1985, the biggest relief programme ever mounted, which raised more than £150m and saved an estimated 2m lives in Africa.[5]
After effects
The suffering she witnessed and the experience of living and working in war zones made her look for a philosophy of life which could answer her question of Why? Why should some people have plenty and others none? Raised a Christian, answering the question brought about her conversion to Buddhism.[6]
In 2004, she returned to Ethiopia with Buerk, accompanied by Geldof and writer Richard Curtis.[7] As a result, she sought counselling, and was diagnosed with PTSD.[1]
In 2005, she wrote about her experiences in the book, Moving Mountains, and the spiritual motivation which led her to Buddhism. Part of the money from the book went to 'African Children’s Educational Trust' A-CET, a British charity.
Awards
Bertschinger has received a series of awards for her work, including the BISH medal from the Scientific Exploration Society in 1986, Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991, the Women of the Year Award 2005 Window to the World Award in a ceremony which also honoured Margaret Thatcher and Tina Turner.[4][8] In 2007 she received the Human Rights in Nursing Award from the International Centre for Human Rights and Nursing Ethics.
Bertschinger was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to Nursing and to International Humanitarian Aid.[9]
References
- ^ a b c d "Deirdre Fernand meets Claire Bertschinger Page2". The Times. 2005-07-03.
- ^ "Band Aid nurse Claire Bertschinger made a Dame in New Year Honours". Herts & Essex Observer. 2009-12-31. http://www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk/hertsandessexobserver-news/displayarticle.asp?id=473971. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ "Claire Bertschinger". Brunel University. 2008. http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/hongrads/2008/bertschinger/bertschingercit. Retrieved 2009-12-31.[dead link]
- ^ a b c "Claire Bertschinger". London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/bertschinger.claire. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ a b c "Interview: Deirdre Fernand meets Claire Bertschinger". London: The Times. 2005-07-03. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article539777.ece. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ Heavens, Andrew (2005-01-29). "Journey from famine to the hunger of the soul". London: The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article507764.ece. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ Michael Buerk (2004-01-04). "Going back". London: The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article841743.ece. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ "Foundation". Women of the Year Award. http://google.com/search?q=cache:YWHBk7snkQcJ:www.womenoftheyear.co.uk/foundation.htm+Woman+of+the+Year+Award+Bertschinger&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59282. p. 6. 31 December 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
External links
- Personal website
- Bio at the London School of Tropical Medicine
- Biography at the BBC
- Review of her book by The Times
Audio/visual
Categories:- Living people
- Swiss people of English descent
- British people of Swiss descent
- People from Epping Forest (district)
- British Buddhists
- British nurses
- Swiss nurses
- Alumni of Brunel University
- Academics of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
- Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
