Claire Bertschinger facts for kids

Dame Claire Bertschinger (born in 1953) is a brave British-Swiss nurse. She is known for helping people who are suffering, especially in countries that are still developing. Her amazing work in Ethiopia in 1984 inspired the famous music events Band Aid and Live Aid. These events became the biggest help programs ever organized.

Claire Bertschinger received the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991 for her nursing work. In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame. This special honour was for her great "services to Nursing and to International Humanitarian Aid."

Claire Bertschinger's Life Story

Claire Bertschinger grew up in a place called Sheering in Essex, England. Her father was Swiss, and her mother was British.

When she was younger, Claire had Dyslexia. This meant she found it very hard to read or write until she was about 14 years old. After her family got a television in the 1960s, she watched a movie called The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. It was about an English missionary named Gladys Aylward who helped people in China. Claire thought, "I could do that. That's what I want to do." This movie inspired her to help others. Later, in 1997, she earned a master's degree in Medical Anthropology from Brunel University.

Claire Bertschinger is a Buddhist. She follows a type of Buddhism called Nichiren Buddhism. She joined a worldwide Buddhist group called Soka Gakkai International in 1994.

In 2005, she wrote a book about her life called Moving Mountains. The book shares her experiences around the world and explains how her spiritual beliefs led her to Buddhism. Some of the money from her book helps a British charity called The African Children's Educational Trust.

Claire Bertschinger's Career Journey

After training and working as a nurse in the UK, Claire Bertschinger joined an expedition called Operation Drake. She worked as a medic with Colonel John Blashford-Snell and the Scientific Exploration Society. They traveled to places like Panama, Papua New Guinea, and Sulawesi.

After this, she joined the emergency relief team of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Because she had dual nationality (both British and Swiss), she was allowed to work in war zones. She has worked in more than a dozen conflict areas. These include Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Liberia. She also worked at the ICRC main office in Geneva, Switzerland. There, she trained other health workers.

Today, Claire Bertschinger is an ambassador and a trustee for The African Children's Educational Trust. She also supports Promise Nepal and volunteers for the charity Age UK.

In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II gave Claire Bertschinger the special title of Dame Commander of the British Empire. This was to honour her great work in nursing and helping people around the world. In 2012, she also became a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.

As of 2024, she has retired from her role as the Director of the Diploma in Tropical Nursing course at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is now an Honorary Assistant Professor there.

Helping in Ethiopia During the Famine

In 1984, Claire Bertschinger was working as a nurse for the ICRC in Mekele, Ethiopia. This was during a terrible famine. She was in charge of a feeding centre. This centre could only take 60 to 70 new children at a time. But thousands more desperately needed food. As a young nurse, she had the heartbreaking job of deciding which children would get food and which would not. The children she couldn't help had very little chance of living. She later said, "I felt like a Nazi commandant, deciding who would live and who would die. Playing God broke my heart."

When a BBC News team arrived with reporter Michael Buerk, Claire was happy to share her story. She wanted to show the world how bad the situation was. Michael Buerk saw Claire as a hero. He made sure his report showed how important her work was. Claire first thought Buerk was "arrogant," but she later agreed that his reports helped a lot.

Buerk's news report about Claire's work was shown on October 23, 1984. Watching it inspired Bob Geldof to start Band Aid. This led to Live Aid in 1985. Live Aid was the biggest relief program ever. It raised over £150 million and is believed to have saved about 2 million lives in Africa.

In 2004, Claire Bertschinger went back to Ethiopia with Buerk. They wanted to see how things had changed after 20 years for a TV program. After that visit, Claire said, "Education is the key to the future for places with few resources. It opens doors and greatly improves people's health, especially for women."

Awards and Honours

• 1986: Bish Medal from the Scientific Exploration Society.
• 1991: Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
• 2005: Women of the Year, Window to the World Award.
• 2007: Human Rights and Nursing Awards from the International Centre for Nursing Ethics.
• 2008: Honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences from Brunel University.
• 2010: Voted one of the Top 20 Most Influential People in the Nursing Field by Masters in Nursing Online.
• 2010: Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.
• 2010: Honorary degree of Doctor of Education from Robert Gordon University.
• 2010: Honorary degree of Doctor of Health Sciences from Anglia Ruskin University.
• 2011: Honorary degree of Doctor from Staffordshire University.
• 2011: Honorary degree of Doctor of Science from De Montfort University.
• 2012: Voted one of the Five formidable women who shaped the Red Cross by the British Red Cross.
• 2012: Voted one of The 10 most influential female nurses of all time by Scrubs Magazine.
• 2012: Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.
• 2013: Included in BBC's 100 women list.

See also

In Spanish: Claire Bertschinger para niños