Anglia Ruskin University would like to invite you to join us to hear Dr Dame Claire Bertschinger, the nurse who inspired Live Aid, to give her inspirational talk 'Moving mountains'.  

This event is part of an exhibition, created by Morehouse College, Atlanta entitled Gandhi-King-Ikeda Peacebuilder’s exhibition which will on display in Chelmsford Library from 16^th to 27^th January 2012. This exhibition is about the life and work of three extraordinary men, from ordinary backgrounds, whose lives embrace three centuries. Although from different religious and cultural traditions, they share the belief that violence and war ultimately solve nothing, and that through the process of inner transformation an individual has the power to change society, the environment and the planet itself.

Dame Claire Bertschinger is also an ordinary person, from Essex, who has achieved extraordinary things in her life.

Following on from a successful nursing career in the UK, Claire went on to accumulate vast experience working in emergency disaster relief, primarily in war zones, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She has worked in over a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Ethiopia where her efforts became the inspiration for Bob Geldof’s Band Aid and Live Aid campaign.

Claire was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal in recognition of her work in conflict situations, has gained a Masters in Medical Anthropology, and has published her autobiography ‘Moving Mountains’ (Transworld, 2005) to critical acclaim. She has subsequently received Woman of the Year, Window to the World award, Human Rights and Nursing Award, and was made a Dame in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to Nursing and to International Humanitarian Aid.

Claire's talk will be based on her autobiography 'Moving Mountains' in which she illustrates just how intolerable the situation in Ethiopia had become.

After the talk there will be a 20 minute Q&A session followed with a drinks reception.

.