Jemima "Mina" MacKenzie (August 18, 1872 – January 27, 1957) was a Canadian Christian medical

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Life

A daughter of farmers Simon and Ann (Murray) MacKenzie, she was born August 18, 1872, in Waterside,

Pictou County Pictou County is a county in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1835, and was formerly a part of Halifax County from 1759 to 1835. It had a population of 43,657 people in 2021, a decline of 0.2 percent from 2016. Furthermo ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada; Dalhousie University website, ''Building a better world: Dr. Mina’s legacy'', article by Marilyn Smulders dated April 19, 2013
/ref> she was the youngest of 14 children. MacKenzie led her class in

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

and graduated from

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

in 1904 as one of the university's earliest female doctors. After working in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

to raise tuition money to enable her sister Molly to also complete a medical degree from Dalhousie, MacKenzie left America in September 1904 and traveled to

to work as a medical missionary with the Women’s Union Missionary Society of America. In 1909, MacKenzie established the Broadwell Christian Hospital in

Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh Fatehpur is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The city is situated between the rivers Ganga and Yamuna. The city has been named after Babu Fateh Chandra who helped Rani Lakshmi Bai in freedom fight as well. It is located south of s ...

, where she and her sister Mary worked for many years. MacKenzie's tireless efforts helped control the

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

epidemic during the 1917

Kumbh Mela Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela () is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, to celebrate every revolution Brihaspati (Jupiter) completes, at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: Allahabad ( ...

pilgrimage. MacKenzie returned to Canada in 1920 to nurse her father; after his death in 1922, she returned to India to work with the 44 children who she had adopted during her time there. MacKenzie dedicated over three decades to provide medical services to the poor and sick in India. In 1919, she was awarded the

Kaiser-i-Hind Medal The Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for Public Service in India was a medal awarded by the Emperor/Empress of India between 1900 and 1947, to "any person without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex ... who shall have distinguished himself (o ...

for Public Service in India and in 1940, Dalhousie University awarded her an honorary LLD degree.

Legacy

The Dr Mina MacKenzie Memorial Trust Fund was set up to fund the Broadwell Christian Hospital and other healthcare in the area. Mina Trust Fund website, retrieved 2024-06-06
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:MacKenzie, Mina 1 Canadian Protestant missionaries Christian medical missionaries Female Christian missionaries People from Kanpur Protestant missionaries in India 1872 births 1957 deaths People from Pictou County Dalhousie University alumni Canadian expatriates in India

Life

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links