Thailand’s Health Care Award won by doctor in Maldives

(Nov. 02, 2011) Thailand’s award to women committed to health care was won by Dr. Aminath Jameel, Minister of Health of the Maldives, a small Asian country in the Indian Ocean. Royal Princess Maha Chadri Sirindhorn of Thailand, presided over the ceremony of the “Princess Srina-karindra Award” in the throne room of Bangkok’s Grand Palace. The prize was founded October 21, 2000, to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the princess at the initiative of the Mahidol University Faculty of Medicine, the country’s topmost university. The award is given annually to a woman who works in health care and for the results obtained at national or international levels. The winner receives a prize of 10 thousand dollars.
Aminath Jameel, after her graduation, began working to bring knowledge of health care to the most isolated and remote areas of the Maldives. She then launched a program for nurses and midwives in the islands, in order to avoid the need to go abroad to acquire these skills. Among other things, she translated health care texts into the local language. Jameel, who was also president of the nurses in the Maldives was later called to become responsible for the health of the country. During the ceremony the Princess Sirindhorn said: “The model of Dr. Jameel is a good one for all nurses to follow.” And Jameel said that she had "an inspiration, to pave the way in local health care in the Maldives, whilst travelling from island to island to learn the local context of each place, and she found what the country most needed was health care ."