Nita Barrow

Dame Ruth Nita Barrow ( * November 15, 1916 at Saint Lucy (Barbados ), † 19 December 1995 in Barbados ) was a Barbadian health and human rights activist and politician and first and so far only female Governor General of Barbados.

Life and work

The daughter of an Anglican priest and sister of the Barbadian Prime Minister Errol Barrow trained as a nurse and a midwife and in nursing administration. Subsequently, she took courses for qualified health professional at the Universities of Toronto and Edinburgh, and at Columbia University in New York City.

Nita Barrow now began in the 1940s, her career as a senior nurse and health consultant in Barbados and Jamaica. You quickly become aware of her and she got a job in 1964 as a health consultant with the World Health Organization and later with the Organización Panamericana de la Salud. From 1975 to 1983 she headed respectively as President of the Young Women's Christian Association, 1982-1990 the International Council for Adult Education, and in the meantime in 1983 the General Assembly of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Vancouver.

Lady Barrow was incorporated in 1983 as a member of the Forum of the United Nations for the " Decade for Women " and initiated in 1985, the international women's conference in Nairobi. In 1986, she was the only woman to an international Commonwealth delegation that lobbied for the release of Nelson Mandela and examined the effects of apartheid in South Africa. In the same year she received an accreditation as Ambassador of Barbados to the United Nations. Finally, Dame Nita Barrow was appointed on 6 June 1990 on the Governor General of Barbados, a post which she held until her death following a stroke on 19 December 1995.

Awards

  • Dame of the Order of St. Andrew / Barbados, 1980
  • Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1980
  • Honorary Doctor of the University of the West Indies, 1980
  • Honorary Member of the Royal College of Nursing, London, 1980
  • Caribbean Prize for Peace, 1986
  • CARICOM Award for Women in 1987
606064
de