Women, medicine and Africa: The politics of health

Fort Worth, TX

4/17/2009

Virginia Morrison, Médecin Sans Frontières aid worker and nurse, spoke April 20 at TCU about her job in MSF as a woman in the medical field and the role she played in helping individuals in underdeveloped African nations in crisis. A TCU student organization, Ensemble en Français, hosted this event along with the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences and School of Nurse Anesthesia.

Morrison’s lecture about the current medical and political issues involving the distribution of aid in Africa provided an insider’s look at how public policy affects the daily lives of the African people, specifically those living in Angola, Congo and Chad. Morrison provided medical care in the latter countries for more than three years.

MSF, the international humanitarian organization also known in English as Doctors Without Borders, provides medical aid to individuals living in underdeveloped nations. At present, MSF’s activities remain highly concentrated in Africa.

“The officers of Ensemble en Français dedicate themselves to promoting awareness of the French and Francophone cultures to the TCU community,” Dr. Marie Schein said. Schein is Ensemble en Français faculty advisor and instructor of Modern Languages.

For more information about MSF or Ensemble en Français, contact Allison Stewart, president of Ensemble en Français at AStewart18@tcu.edu, or Dr. Schein at mschein@tcu.edu.