By Masudur Rahman

Senior Reporter

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Baroness Caroline Cox was presented the Nightingale Award for Nursing by the Oakland University School of Nursing last Friday after giving a lecture at Meadow Brook Theatre May 9.

In her presentation entitled “Sharp Compassion: Humanitarian Aid for Forgotten People,” Cox described the humanitarian work she has done throughout her life in various regions of the world, as well as her current projects.

She said that the title comes from a line from the T.S. Eliot poem “East Coker,” and that it has a two-pronged explanation.

“Our compassion needs to be sharp,” she said. “We can’t give anything less than our best. We should also be sharp toward ourselves, be critical of ourselves, and make sure that our approaches and efforts to help people are the right ones.”

Cox, 70, has received numerous awards for her humanitarian efforts, including the International Mother Theresa Award. She also holds positions in numerous organizations, including Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing and trustee of the Medical Emergency Relief International. She is also a member of Christian Solidarity International.

But Cox said that most of her current efforts are as Chief Executive of Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), an organization she founded in 2003 to “be a voice for the voiceless and help forgotten people in forgotten lands.”

She said that these people are usually “unreached, unhelped and unheard.”

During her presentation, she recounted several memories of crossing borders illegally to give aid to people in need, in places like Burma (now Myanmar) and Sudan.

“I’m not ashamed of breaking international laws to reach the people who need help,” she said. “I follow a higher law that calls for compassion first.”

She spoke about her first big project, helping to transform the Soviet Union’s foster family care system.

“The real heroes are the local people,” she said. “[HART] just lend a helping hand and our local partners take it from there and do most of the work.”

At the reception held in Lady Cox’s honor in Meadow Brook Hall after the lecture, Dean of the Nursing School Linda Adams said that Cox’s life and work upholds what she believes about the nursing profession.

“It’s not just diseases we try to heal,” Adams said. “We try to heal communities, too. I believe that [Cox] embodies that.”

Several students at the reception said that they were inspired by the lecture.

Matthew Hamper, a nursing major at OU, said, “Having traveled abroad and seeing different areas of despair myself, it was inspiring to see what one nurse can do… .

Hearing her talk changed how I think about nursing, because as nursing students, we think that it’s about caring for patients at the bedside, but we can do more.”