Bertschinger, Claire 1952–

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Bertschinger, Claire 1952–

PERSONAL: Born 1952.

ADDRESSES: Agent—do Author Mail, Doubleday Press, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, Switzerland, nurse, c. 1984–90; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England, instructor in tropical nursing, c. 1990–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Florence Nightingale Medal, 1991, International Committee of the Red Cross.

WRITINGS:

(With Fanny Blake) Moving Mountains (memoir), Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Claire Bertschinger is a nurse who spent many years working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in some of the most impoverished areas of the world. As the supervisor of a food station in famine-ridden Ethiopia, she became the inspiration for musician Bob Geldof's groundbreaking Live Aid Concert in 1984. Her memoir, written with Fanny Blake, is titled Moving Mountains. The book recounts her work in Ethiopia and many other countries, including Afghanistan, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Lebanon. It is an account of "nursing in a nightmare," wrote Laurence Dopson in the Nursing Standard, one that "nurses worldwide will applaud," concluded Jonathan Falla in the Scotsman.

Moving Mountains relies on Bertschinger's diary entries, letters, and recollections to relate how she arrived in Ethiopia in 1984 and became responsible for determining who, out of an estimated 85,000 starving people—many of whom were children—would receive food and medical treatment, and who would not. Several months into her assignment, BBC reporter Michael Buerk filed a television report about Bertschinger's work, which prompted unprecedented aid to the region and spurred Geldof to create an adhoc group of rock stars known as Band Aid to record the million-selling single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Having to decide which children lived and which died scarred Bertschinger for life. For twenty years she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was unable to talk about the horror she witnessed. As she told BBC News health reporter Jane Elliott, "I felt like a Nazi sending people to the death camps. Why was I in this situation? Why was it possible in this time of plenty that some have food and some do not? It is not right." Writing Moving Mountains was part of Bertschinger's attempt to cope with her past, but putting her memories on the page was not easy, either mentally or physically. Bertschinger is dyslexic and had never been a good student in school. Nursing was her chosen career path early on, and she credits her Buddhist beliefs for giving her the strength and courage to face the things she has seen. After leaving the International Red Cross, she became an instructor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she taught new generations of students to carry on humanitarian work in war-torn countries.

In 2003 Bertschinger returned to Ethiopia and met some of the children she helped save, a journey that helped her appreciate the work she had done, even though at the time she had questioned whether or not she was making a difference. For her work in Ethiopia and elsewhere, she was awarded nursing's highest honor, the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1991. Bertschinger was a guest at Geldof's Live 8 concert in 2005, which was a philanthropic attempt to "make poverty history." A portion of Moving Mountains proceeds will be donated to the African Children's Educational Trust, which gives needy children a chance to go to school.