Claire Bertschinger

Dame Claire Bertschinger DBE DL is an Anglo-Swiss nurse and activist in advocacy on behalf of suffering people in the developing world. Her work in Ethiopia in 1984 inspired Band Aid and subsequently Live Aid, the biggest relief programme ever mounted.

Biography

The daughter of a Swiss father and British mother,[1] Bertschinger was brought up in Sheering near Bishop's Stortford 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]

Bertschinger graduated from Brunel University with an MSc degree in Medical Anthropology in 1997.

Bertschinger is a Buddhist, practising Nichiren Buddhism. She became a member of Sōka Gakkai International in 1994.[3][4][5]

In 2005, her book Moving Mountains was published, describing her experiences, and her spiritual motivation which led her to Buddhism. Part of the royalties from the book went to The African Children's Educational Trust, a British charity.[6]

Career

After training and working as a nurse in the UK, Bertschinger became a medic on Operation Drake, an expedition with Colonel John Blashford-Snell and the Scientific Exploration Society in 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 attend war locations thanks to her dual-nationality. Through this she has worked in over a dozen zones of conflict including Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Liberia.

Bertschinger has also worked at ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland as training officer in the Health Division.

Bertschinger is currently Director for the Diploma in Tropical Nursing course at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.[7]

She is an ambassador and Trustee for The African Children's Educational Trust,[8] Patron for Promise Nepal,[9] and a voluntary worker for the charity Age UK.[7]

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 a feeding centre which could only take in 60 to 70 new children at a time when thousands more were in need of food.[10] As a young nurse, she had to decide who would and would not receive food; those she couldn't help had little hope of survival, she has said:"I felt like a Nazi commandant, deciding who would live and who would die. Playing God broke my heart".[11] 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."[11] 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.[11]

In 2004, she returned to Ethiopia with Buerk, to assess the situation 20 years on to make the programme Ethiopia: A Journey with Michael Buerk.[12][13]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Deirdre Fernand meets Claire Bertschinger Page2". The Times. 3 July 2005. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  2. ↑ "Band Aid nurse Claire Bertschinger made a Dame in New Year Honours". Herts & Essex Observer. 31 December 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  3. ↑ "Claire Bertschinger – Healthcare and Peace Worker". SGI-UK. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  4. ↑ "SGI E-Bulletin Issue 15" (PDF). SGI-UK. 6 January 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2012. Encountering Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism and becoming a member of SGI-UK in 1994 has given my life true meaning and direction.
  5. ↑ Heavens, Andrew (29 January 2005). "Journey from famine to the hunger of the soul". London: The Times. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  6. ↑ "Other ways to help". The African Children's Educational Trust. Retrieved 21 November 2012. Buy Dr Claire Bertschinger's book"Moving Mountains" Published by Transworld Books -ISBN 0385 65801X is still available and where a pproportion of the royalties come to A-CET.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Claire Bertschinger". London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  8. ↑ "The A-CET governance team". African Children's Educational Trust. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  9. ↑ "Promise Nepal: Our Committee & Trustee". Promise Nepal. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  10. ↑ "The nurse who inspired Live Aid". BBC. 1 July 2005. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Interview: Deirdre Fernand meets Claire Bertschinger". London: The Times. 3 July 2005. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  12. ↑ "Ethiopia: A Journey with Michael Buerk". BBC. 16 December 2003. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  13. ↑ "Ethiopia: A Journey with Michael Buerk". ABC Four Corners. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  14. ↑ "Previous winners". Women of the Year. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  15. ↑ "Human Rights and Nursing Awards". International Centre for Nursing Ethics, University of Surrey. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  16. ↑ "Claire Bertschinger – Citation". Brunel University. 15 July 2008. Retrieved 23 November 2012. Pro-Chancellor, in recognition of her outstanding services to the international community, it gives me great pleasure to present to you Claire Bertschinger, for the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa.
  17. ↑ "Top 20 Most Influential People in the Nursing Field". Master's in Nursing Online. 16 September 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2012. Pro-Chancellor, in recognition of her outstanding services to the international community, it gives me great pleasure to present to you Claire Bertschinger, for the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa.
  18. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59282. p. 6. 31 December 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  19. ↑ "Nurse and Humanitarian Honoured by Robert Gordon University". Robert Gordon University. 8 July 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2012. Dr Dame Claire Bertschinger was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Education at Robert Gordon University's graduation ceremony on Tuesday 13 July.
  20. ↑ "Dr Dame Claire Bertschinger Doctor of Health Sciences, 2012". Anglia Ruskin University. 18 October 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  21. ↑ "Dr Dame Claire Bertschinger DBE". Staffordshire University. Retrieved 23 November 2012. The Award of Honorary Doctor of Staffordshire University is bestowed upon Dame Claire, in recognition of her services to nursing and international humanitarian aid, for continuing to campaign against the causes of poverty across the world and for being an inspirational role model for health professionals.
  22. ↑ "Nurse who inspired Live Aid opens multi-million pound state-of-the-art teaching facility". De Montfort University. 19 October 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2012. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from DMU in 2009.
  23. ↑ "Five formidable women who shaped the Red Cross". British Red Cross. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  24. ↑ "The 10 most influential female nurses of all time". Scrubs. 10 June 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  25. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 60331. p. 1. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2012.

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