Lisa Isaacs
THE diagnosis of a brain tumour at the age of 23 was the turning point in Ainslie McClarty’s life. From that moment, she dedicated herself to saving the lives of others.
McClarty, of Fish Hoek, had surgery to remove the tumour and the now 43-year-old nurse works in poverty-stricken and war-ravaged areas in Ethiopia, Egypt and Afghanistan for Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
For Africa Month, MSF is celebrating the work of 10 fieldworkers from around the continent, including McClarty, who have dedicated their lives to saving others.
MSF said McClarty was one of their fieldworkers who has given her life to saving others through the use of her medical expertise in different parts of Africa, and spent months away from family to give back to people across the world.
McClarty recently returned from Ethiopia, where she worked as medical team leader, heading up vaccination campaigns and carrying out patient assessments.
She has also worked with refugees from African countries and the Middle East who come to Egypt to settle or make their way to Europe.
“What really stood out for me was the sheer hell that people had been through.
I’m amazed at the strength of the human spirit to carry on. It shocked me and inspired me at the same time.
“I would cry sometimes to hear their stories of uncertainty, trauma, torture and to see how they were treated like criminals. I focused on helping people to get health care. I joined MSF because of my desire to help the poor and needy.”
Often, McClarty said, she would teach health practitioners about the basics of caring for and nurturing their patients, because the staff had not experienced this kind of care themselves.
While working in a small village in Ethiopia, she said MSF workers would walk through the village offering help.
“In areas like these people have never been taught to seek medical help. These are people who are not exposed to medical care. We’d say to them, ‘go and pack your things’, to take them with us for medical attention and they had nothing.”
In 2014, she worked as a specialised nurse in the ICU and emergency room in MSF’s hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.
Five months after she had left, the hospital was bombed, killing 16 staff members.
“I’ll never forget some of the patients I treated who were injured in bomb blasts. But I love what I do. I want to give back through humanity work,” she said.