Health and honor

Senior health advisor, policy division, of London’s Department For International Development (DFID) for the last nine years, Dr Delna Ghandhi was conferred the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) honor in recognition of her services to tackling tropical diseases. The medal was presented to Ghandhi by Prince William on November 5, 2019 but Parsiana learnt of her contribution to the fields of communicable diseases, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) only four months later thanks to subscriber Nawshir Khurody.

"My career has largely been in global public health. In recent years I have been working on NTDs. These diseases largely occur amongst the poorest people and affect 1.6 billion people,” summed up Ghandhi. Affiliated with the DFID in different capacities, Ghandhi had started as deputy health and population field manager in Nigeria in 1997 with subsequent postings taking her to Bangkok, Washington DC, and London. "I have enjoyed them all and they have had different challenges,” she stated.
A member of the Royal College of General Practitioners since 1985, Ghandhi accepted her first assignment for Voluntary Service Overseas at the Ortum Mission Hospital in Kenya that "taught me a great deal about the stoicism of the local community and personal resilience as well as the provision of good quality care in difficult circumstances,” she recalled. "The work in Cambodia supporting the government to tackle HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and rebuild the health system after the genocide was also very rewarding,” she added.
With a string of degrees and diplomas to her name, after qualifying as a Bachelor of Medical Science in Community Health from the University of Nottingham, she studied child health, tropical medicine and hygiene, health economics, health policy, planning and financing. The two months she spent at a single doctor hospital in Sudan, she feels, taught her "a great deal…and made me interested in serving disadvantaged populations.”
When 61-year-old Ghandhi was asked to comment on the coronavirus pandemic she said, "I have enormous respect for all the health staff tackling the disease on a daily basis. I do hope the legacy will be better hygiene and indeed more investment in public health and medical research.”
Daughter of the late Vice Adm Rustom and Khorshed (Bubbles) Ghandhi, Bombay born Delna is a member of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe though not a regular participant in its activities. During the four years she spent in Hong Kong from 1991 to 1995 working on three different assignments for Medecins Sans Frontieres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, "I thoroughly enjoyed my involvement with the Zoroastrian association there (Zoroastrian Charity Funds of Hongkong, Canton and Macao) that held lots of events and were most welcoming. I would consider them a model for other associations to emulate,” she appreciated.
Viewing herself as a liberal, she recalled her disappointment when most priests refused to pray at the funeral of her mother who died in Bombay in 2011 and chose to be cremated. She expressed her gratitude to "the priests in Bombay and London who felt able to pray with us.” Believing that debate about the future of a religion is healthy, Delna noted, "Our forebears had great vision. I hope that the Parsi community will continue to push the boundaries of knowledge in a variety of disciplines and continue to make their very significant contributions in the national and international fora just as our ancestors have done.”