By Jessica Horton
For a brief period of time between the ages of 10 and 12, I wanted to be a nurse or a doctor working with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). There was something so heroic and eternally encouraging about the idea of working for no government, no corporation, of working to help people regardless of where they were born, what they do, or who has power over them. Silly little things like borders and citizenship would have no impact on the level of care and service I would be able to provide to those who needed it most. I was in awe of people who were dedicated enough to become doctors, and then brave enough to do the vital work conducted by organizations like MSF, the Red Cross, or Partners in Health. Sadly for my 12-year-old self, my passions changed and I realized I wanted to make my mark on the world by studying history, political science, and English. My dream became to touch people’s hearts and minds with my words and my ideas. Nevertheless, though I no longer wish to be one of those heroic nurses or doctors I idolized as a kid, I have the privilege of writing about them today and of spreading information and stories about these incredible people and the impactful work they conduct all over the world.
Women’s involvement in non-governmental health organizations spans nearly a century, since before the Second World War. The Canadian Red Cross is proud of its long history of women in their organization. According to their website, during WWII and after, there were 15,000 women who were recruited from Canada to join the Red Cross. There was a “special Overseas Detachment” of 641 women who crossed the ocean to serve overseas during the war. They had many roles, including driving ambulances, supporting patients, assisting doctors in military hospitals, etc. According to the organization, “courageous, strong and perhaps ahead of their time, they carried with them the strength and good wishes of many women who could not leave home.” The women who stayed on the home front in Canada worked making bandages, sewed surgical gowns, and organized food packages to send to prisoners of war overseas. Today, the Red Cross has a specific movement dedicated to encouraging and supporting “female volunteers and philanthropists to follow in the footsteps of a long line of women leaders, as modern-day heroes.” This group is called The Tiffany Circle.
Flash forward to today and women are still doing groundbreaking work for health NGOs all over the world. Many of these women have had to overcome barriers to their success and advancements as leaders, as well as facing stereotypes of all kinds. Nevertheless, the women do not break. They continue to work toward improving healthcare and helping as many people as they can while also trailblazing various paths for future women in their fields. This movement is intersectional and powerful and beautiful. Female doctors, nurses, and all other forms of healthcare professionals from all corners of the world are doing important work toward making the NGO healthcare space more “inclusive and accessible to all.”
To mark International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month 2022, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) worked to recognize some of their female leaders from their different sites of operation. MSF first highlighted Rebecca Lahai, a clinical mentor at MSF’s Hangha hospital in Sierra Leone. As a young girl, Lahai remembered the “compassion and empathy” of the medical staff who took care of her aunt. She “always admired people putting on their white gowns,” and now, as a woman who does the kind of clinical work she so admired as a young girl, her advice for other women like her is “when you work very hard, my fellow women, you will definitely achieve.” Another woman highlighted this year by MSF is Shorouq Madmouj, a social worker with the organization in Nablus, Palestine. It is important to remember that healthcare does not only constitute doctors and nurses. There are many vital professions which contribute to the care and health of individuals. Madmouj knows that she is underestimated as a woman in her field, but nevertheless, she has persisted and been rewarded with the trust of her community. A third woman highlighted this year by MSF is Prunau Lector, the emergency nurse supervisor in Cap-Haïtian in Northern Haiti, following the earthquake in 2021. Working with MSF within the highly privatized healthcare system in Haiti, Lector says that she “used [her] Haitian soul to make them understand that [their] fellow countrymen and countrywomen needed help, and that MSF had come to provide quality and free healthcare to them.” Her wise advice to women is to “move away from clichés that depict women as weak compared to men, to be self-confident, to believe in their abilities, and to always keep moving forward.”
If you want to read more about these women leaders in MSF, visit this link.
Below is a list of interesting information about women in the international healthcare field:
https://blogs.msf.org/bloggers/karla/meet-women-doing-mens-work
https://msf-usa.medium.com/womens-history-month-these-are-the-boss-ladies-speaking-out-5f094c0cebe6
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/article/women-centre-their-health
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/she-inspires-international-women-day-breaking-bias