Dufferin Fund
The Dufferin Fund , actually The Association for Supplying Medical Aid to the Women of India , was a foundation founded in 1884 by Hariot Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava to promote better health care for women in British India . Hariot Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood founded this find after she followed her husband, Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava to his post as Governor General and Viceroy to India. The Foundation worked intermittently with Florence Nightingale , who had worked on health care issues in India since 1857. The founding of the foundation followed with support from the British Queen Victoria and was later also sponsored by other British viceroys. Funds for the fund came from wealthy Indians such as the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maharaja of Jaipur , among others . The foundation soon had offices in many parts of India, including Calcutta, Bombay, Lahore and Bhagalpur .
The foundation essentially pursued three goals:
- medical care for women and children
- Training of women in medical professions
- Provision of trained nurses and midwives for hospitals
Lady Dufferin got involved in this foundation because modern medical care corresponding to the time hardly existed for Indian women in the second half of the 19th century. Cultural reservations prevented Indian women from going to a hospital where they would be treated by a male doctor. There were too few female doctors, mostly Europeans, in the last two decades of the 19th century to be able to provide lasting relief.
The foundation established pharmacies and small, women-only hospitals (so-called cottage hospitals ). In addition, she set up wards in larger hospitals that only accepted female patients who were only cared for by women there. The main achievement of the Dufferin Fund consisted in the training of Indian nurses, midwives and doctors. Thanks to the foundation's commitment, hygiene issues have also been included in the school curriculum.
Florence Nightingale began compiling simple instructions and teaching material for the find as early as 1885, which was to be used in India. Nightingale was one of the most famous British personalities involved in health care issues. She became famous and well-known for her service in the Crimean War , she subsequently made a significant contribution to reforms of the British medical system and the medical care of the poor and in 1860 founded the Nightingale School of Nursing , which is considered one of the steps in the establishment of modern nursing. As early as 1857 she had supported a British government commission, which was supposed to achieve better health care for soldiers stationed in British India, and had thereby developed into a recognized India expert. In order to develop suitable fonts for the specific situation in India, she used her connections to experts. Among other things, she turned to the medical practitioner John Sutherland , with whom she had already worked during the reforms to the British medical system, to find experts who were familiar with the situation in India. She also ensured that Lady Dufferin met John Murdoch, a British missionary whose work The Way to Health was written especially for an Indian readership and which, thanks to Lady Dufferin's support, became part of the school curriculum in numerous Indian regions or similar writings inspired.
By the late 19th century, India had a number of universities and other educational establishments that enabled women to gain training in a medical profession. In 1895 there were at least 300 women preparing to graduate in medical education.
Nightingale's most recent writings include simple primers on health care subjects that have been translated into various Indian languages.
literature
- Mark Bostridge: Florence Nightingale . Penguin Books, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-140-26392-3
- Jharna Gourlay: Florence Nightingale and the Health of the Raj . Ashgate, Burlington 2003, ISBN 0-7546-3364-0