IT is 40 years since Dame Claire Bertschinger was a nurse on the front line of the devastating famine in Ethiopia, deciding which starving children to save.
But the torment of not being able to feed them all will never truly leave her.
Claire with grown-up Birhan Woldu, who is now a nurse[/caption]
The harrowing image of Birhan, three, that shocked the world in 1984[/caption]
Claire meets Birhan’s little girl, named in her honour[/caption]
Haunting footage in a 1984 BBC News report by Michael Buerk — which showed Claire caring for babies with only the scantest of supplies — shocked the world.
The harrowing film, which aired four decades ago tomorrow, would go on to inspire charity Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas? — followed by the Live Aid concert the next year — and raise around £120million for the African country.
Among the hordes of hungry youngsters to feature in the appeal was three-year-old Birhan Woldu.
Her frail image was beamed from the screen at Live Aid, her life appearing to slowly ebb away.
But today, we can reveal that Birhan, now 43, survived the famine and became a nurse herself — and that she and Claire still keep in touch.
In fact, Claire, 71, has been back to Ethiopia to visit Birhan and her daughter, born in 2011 and named Claire after the Brit aid worker.
In an exclusive interview, she said: “It is an honour that Birhan named her daughter after me.
“People will know her from being the tiny girl in footage at Live Aid being carried by her father to the tune Drive by The Cars.
“And now she is a beautiful woman, she is a mother, she got a degree and is a nurse.
“We’re still in touch. She’s a wonderful woman. She doesn’t really speak English, but we can zap an email to each other.
“I have been to see her and little Claire. It is very special.”
Of the famous news broadcast that first highlighted the desperate situation in Ethiopia, Claire added: “I had no idea it had had the impact that it did.
“I was experiencing starving people all day, every day, and trying my best and doing my job.
“What the BBC filmed was just a snapshot of what was going on.
“But the report had an amazing effect. Before that, people had no idea of the suffering in Ethiopia. It just shows you how important it is reporting these things.
“After that report, and the subsequent Band Aid fundraising, we had several Hercules planes every day full of supplies to help people there, not just once a month. It was amazing, wonderful.”
‘It was horrendous’
Claire, of Somerset, who was made a Dame in the late Queen’s 2010 Honours, told how she found herself unable to talk about her experiences in Ethiopia for 20 years.
And she revealed she was initially sceptical about 1984 song Do They Know It’s Christmas? — featuring huge stars including Bob Geldof, Bono, Midge Ure and George Michael — as she thought: “We’re going to need a lot more than a band aid here.”
Claire, who had previously been posted in Beirut, was working as a nurse for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) when she received a call asking her to go to Ethiopia in June 1984.
She said: “I was told, ‘We need somebody in Ethiopia. Would you like to go?’. I’d never been to Africa so I thought, ‘Yes, I’d love to’.
“I had no real gauge of just how serious the situation was.
“There was already a nurse for the ICRC over there who had set up a feeding station, which I would go to.” Thousands of people had already died and seven million were threatened with starvation in the war-torn country.
I was told, ‘We need somebody in Ethiopia. Would you like to go?’. I’d never been to Africa so I thought, ‘Yes, I’d love to’
Dame Claire Bertschinger
Claire, who was 27 at the time, added: “I can remember seeing masses of starving men, women, children in just tattered rags.
“There was a drought and people had been displaced. But at that time it started to rain very heavily. The ground turned into a quagmire.
“It was horrendous. The situation was so desperate that people were just skin and bones. They had no fat, they had just skin dropping off their bones.”
There were so few resources available that Claire had to choose who would be fed and saved.
She recalled once going outside to select the 60 or 70 starving children they could provide for that day — only to find there were more than a thousand waiting for food.
Claire explained: “I would take the ones who had sort of a spark of life in their eyes, and just mark them.
Claire’s BBC interview with Michael Buerk on the famine[/caption]
The BBC’s Buerk reporting on the Ethiopian famine[/caption]
Sir Bob Geldof and Birhan at a new recording of the single in 2004[/caption]
“I marked them with a bit of coal on their head, on their arm, and I knew the rest would not survive the next ten days, because there was no food.
“The thing was, we didn’t have sufficient general rations for everybody at that time. I had to focus on what we could do.
“There were often 500 kids, some vomiting, some wanting to eat, some not wanting to eat, some screaming their heads off.
“I didn’t have time to think of the bigger global picture.”
But in October that year, a BBC crew including Michael Buerk arrived.
Claire said: “They had got on a small, light aircraft and flown in and come to my feeding centre. It was very unexpected. And they wanted to come and film.
It was horrendous. The situation was so desperate that people were just skin and bones. They had no fat, they had just skin dropping off their bones
Dame Claire Bertschinger
“I was trying to feed the kids, and also do a little medical clinic. And I remember them asking me to stand among the children who were really bad and starving.
“I just remember him asking me this one particular question about having to select the children who were fed, saying, ‘How does that make you feel?’.
“I thought, ‘What a stupid question!’. I just told him, ‘It breaks my heart’.
“I remember trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I didn’t want them there because of them getting in the way. What they got was a snapshot of the desolation. They were there for a blink in the eye of the day. I lived it every day.”
In the days that followed, Buerk’s report was aired on the BBC news, including his questioning of Claire and his famous description of the feeding centre as “the closest thing to hell on Earth”.
The report sent shockwaves around the world and sparked a huge fundraising drive — but Claire had no idea.
‘Hell on Earth’
She said: “There was no phone, there was no internet. I would get a letter from my mother saying they saw me on the TV, but I didn’t even give it another thought I was so immersed in my job.”
One person the report touched was Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, who decided to bring in some of the biggest music stars to make a charity record for Ethiopia.
Claire said: “I had a shortwave radio — sometimes you could hear what they were saying, and sometimes you couldn’t.
“I remember them talking about this song by Band Aid called Do They Know It’s Christmas?.
“I thought, ‘It’s going to need more than a band aid to fix the issues here’, and I remember thinking, ‘Of course they don’t know it’s Christmas, they have a completely different calendar in Ethiopia’.
“I was sceptical. But then the planes arrived that were funded by the charity donations from around the world.”
I thought, ‘It’s going to need more than a band aid to fix the issues here’, and I remember thinking, ‘Of course they don’t know it’s Christmas, they have a completely different calendar in Ethiopia’
Dame Claire Bertschinger
In fact, a Hercules aircraft packed with food rations touched down days after Claire first heard the hit single.
She said: “I was told this Hercules plane was going to arrive, and I should go and meet it at the airport.
“And the doors opened, it was full of supplies. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is amazing. We’re saved’.
“By Christmas time, we had several feeding centres. It prevented a lot of deaths.
“It made me realise how wonderful Michael Buerk’s report had been and the fundraising Band Aid had done afterwards.
“That stupid question of the song title was probably the best thing that could have happened.”
However, witnessing the plight of Ethiopian families has had a lasting effect on Claire.
She said: “Going home was hard. People didn’t understand the extent of what I had seen. They kept saying what I had done was marvellous, but I didn’t think what I’d done was marvellous at all. It affected me.”
Do They Know It’s Christmas? went straight to No1 in December 1984.
And the following year, Live Aid, hosted simultaneously at Wembley stadium and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, was beamed around the world, featuring performances from huge acts, including Queen and Elton John.
The two projects raised around £120million for relief in Ethiopia.
For the 20th anniversary in 2004, Claire went back to Ethiopia with Michael Buerk.
Going home was hard. People didn’t understand the extent of what I had seen. They kept saying what I had done was marvellous, but I didn’t think what I’d done was marvellous at all. It affected me
Dame Claire Bertschinger
She said: “I met people who remembered me. It was very touching. But it was like opening a wound. It felt very painful, and it was painful for months later.
“It doesn’t give you closure, because the experience is always there, but you move on.”
However, Claire was heartened to see a stronger country when she visited again years later.
She said: “I went back over in 2015, this time with Bob Geldof.
“It was wonderful to see the new roads, hospitals, educational buildings, all through fundraising efforts.”
Sadly, in Ethiopia, conflict has been raging again and Claire said: “Fighters have destroyed the hospitals, moved everything from inside the hospitals, destroyed schools, looted everything and are killing. It is extremely worrying.”
Practising Buddhist Claire, who retired from her role as a lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in January, believes there needs to be more understanding in the world.
On Friday, she and Michael Buerk, along with others, will hold a talk at the London School of Economics about the Ethiopian famine and fundraising efforts.
‘Proud of my work’
She said: “I feel that there’s sufficient food in the world for everybody, and that we have to find an alternative to fighting war.
“We have to do it through seeing each person as human and not seeing them as the other side.
“I am proud of my work and, 40 years on, am very glad of the impact that the BBC report from Ethiopia made.
“Stories like Birhan’s are a reminder we have made a difference. We are making a difference, and shouldn’t stop.”
- Dame Claire and Michael Buerk will be part of a discussion at the screening of film Stand Together As One at the London School of Economics on Friday at 6pm.
