Catholic nun conferred International Human Rights And Nursing Award

Patna – A Catholic nun has been conferred the International Human Rights and Nursing Award 2005 in recognition of her 17–year–long “exemplary work in human rights and nursing” rendered among the poor and marginalised Dalit and Backward Class women and children of a remote Gayiri village, in West Champaran district, North Bihar, Christian Today has confirmed.

Patna–based Notre Dame Sister Grace Kodiyan has become the first Indian to receive the honour.

The other awardee this year is a male nurse, Mr. Fidelis Mudimu of Zimbabwe.

The award instituted 10 years ago by the International Centre for Nursing Ethics (ICNE) of the University of Surrey, Guilford, UK, was given to Sr. Grace on May 19 at Taipei, Taiwan. The award is given every alternative year in different countries.

The award carries a certificate, a memento, a citation and a cash prize of Rs. 257,000, besides the sponsored trip and stay for the award ceremony at Taipei. Professor Emeritus Anne J. Davis of University of Surrey, UK presented it at the annual conference of ICNE held at the National Defence Centre Hospital, Taipei.

Quoting from the citation, Ms. Davis said, “The award was a recognition of an outstanding commitment to human rights and exemplifying the essence of nursing’s philosophy of humanity.”

“I am happy that the work of a nurse as a human rights activist is recognised,” said Sr. Grace who returned to Patna from her trip to Taiwan.

“I am also happy that my work in a not–so–accessible remote village is spotted,” she said, speaking to SAR News.

“I wanted to take nursing profession beyond the precincts of dispensaries and hospitals,” she said. “In other words, I did social work as a nurse.”

In rural India, preventive healthcare is as important as the curative one, she explained. “We need to educate not only the patients but the community both on curing and preventing diseases,” she elaborated. “My experience is that community health approach has brought better benefits and lasting results to people and society at large.”

“Healthcare is not an isolated need. It is dependent on the fulfillment of the basic needs of a community. Unless basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter are met, one cannot think of health. My nursing work went beyond mere medicine to social work helping people fulfill their basic needs.”

Sr. Grace worked among the illiterate women of the villages of Champaran, one of the most backward districts of Bihar bordering Nepal, from 1987–2003, providing them with basic healthcare facilities, immunisation and mother and child healthcare.

She and her team of sisters and other collaborators conducted non–formal schools for non–school going children, training of women leaders, training on Panchayati Raj, indigenous medicine, training of youth to take up health and human rights issues and training of health workers and traditional birth attendants.

Besides, Sr. Grace organized self–help groups of women. Over 50 such groups with a total membership of 800 women have been formed in Gayiri and other villages, in collaboration with like–minded activists.

Transferred to Piro village in Bhojpur district in central Bihar in 2004, Sister Grace is planning to start similar programmes all over all again.

“Choosing to work among women in rural areas was a vocation within my professional work as a nurse. I have not done something unique or big: but some non–formal type of work,” she said unassumingly. “As a nurse I found myself relying on Christ, the master–physician. And trusting on the goodness of people, I went ahead.”