Leaders in health

Leaders in health In virtually every age and culture, women have been the daily care-givers and nurturers. On these pages we profile just a few examples of women who, through courage, perseverance, vision and incalculable hard work - have applied care-giving to embrace the world. Dame Cicely Saunders Like Dame Nita, Dame Cicely was awarded the honour of Dame of the British Empire by the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth 11. Her contributions to health care are of long standing. She is widely regarded as a founder of the Hospice movement in the UK, although she is quick to point out that hospices for the chronically sick and dying have existed since the 1870s. Her own St.Christopher's Hospice in Sydenham, South London, opened in 1961 as "a hospital and a home" for dying and long-term patients and elderly residents; home care and staff training are included in its functions. But the inspiration for it dates back to 1948, when she was bequeathed the sum of £500 by cancer sufferer David Tasma, originally from the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. ''I'll be a window in your home," he told her before he died. Today several huge panes of glass on the ground-floor of St. Christopher's are formally known as David Tasma's Window. 18 Dame Nita Barrow "lt is evident that we are not near our goal of Health for all by the year 2000," says Dame Nita Barrow, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations in New York. "In this final decade of the century, women are still the mainstay of health care in the family, as they are in so many areas. The whole thrust of literacy as a main focus for the present year and as a United Nations imperative will help to enhance women's abilities in this field. Their capacity for understanding, and for taking action, in the domain of health will be progressively widened as we seek to reduce the total of 666 million women who are at present illiterate in today's world." Dame Nita's commitment to the great issues of health care in general and of women's health in particular is of long standing . A former consultant with WHO in the field of maternal and child health, she has also had long experience in nursing and health care. During the 41st World Health Assembly in Geneva in 1988, she was the General Chairman of the Technical "' Discussions which had as their theme "Leadership ~ development for Health for all." i K. Torvik © WORLD HEALTH. April -May 1990 @ ~ ..5 ~ Ol '8 ~ ..c u ~ "":> ~ :s \ \\ \ \ \ When passion is appropriate ... "You know, women are very passionate, in fact they very often drive men crazy because they're so passionate and emotional . . . Often, when /lay out the effects of nuclear war, the person interviewing me on television will say: 'Aren't you being a bit emotional?' (But) it's appropriate to be passionate about our survival. When I had my first baby, I knew I'd die to save that life. Now I had never felt like that about any other human life before; it was a profound revelation for me. If we can mobilise that instinct that women have to save their babies, across the world, we may survive." Or He/en Caldicott (Australia) Founding member and president emeritus, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Founder of Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, Winner of the Gandhi Peace Prize. W ORLD HEALTH. April - May 1990 Mother Theresa Mother Theresa is among the comparatively few personalities who would be recognised in almost every corner of the globe. Born an Albanian in 191 0, she is now an Indian citizen. As it happens, her birthdate of 26 August coincided with the date more than a century earlier of the Declaration of Human Rights during the French Revolution - a Declaration which was later to be a "blueprint" for the Charter of the United Nations. Mother Theresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her devoted work among the poor, the sick and the dying in the slums of Calcutta. A true "citizen of the world," she is venerated by people of all beliefs, although herself a founder of the Christian body, the Missionaries of Charity, whose work takes them to 70 countries. Today she may be found caring not only for the sick in Calcutta but also for the victims of leprosy in Africa or for patients with AIDS in New York. 19