International Health Care Advocate Dominique Corti to Receive Archon Award

INDIANAPOLIS - Oct. 24, 2013 - PRLog -- Dr. Dominique Corti, who has dedicated her life to improving health care for some of the world’s most vulnerable citizens, will be in Indianapolis this fall to accept the 2013 Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Archon Award on behalf of the nurses at St. Mary’s Lacor Hospital in Uganda.  An honor society and the second-largest nursing organization in the world with approximately 125,000 active members, STTI bestows Archon Awards biennially “to individuals and groups who have shown exceptional leadership in advancing health and welfare through the world.”

Corti will receive the Archon Award Monday, November 18 in a ceremony at the J.W. Marriott Hotel from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.  Other 2013 honorees are: Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA), Washington, USA; Donald & Barbara Jonas, Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence, New York, USA; and OxFam International, United Kingdom.

Corti will be in Indianapolis as the guest of Social Promise -- an Indiana-based nonprofit which works to assist the people of northern Uganda -- from November 14 through 19.  Social Promise will be hosting two events in her honor.  On Sunday, November 17, Social Promise will host the very popular “African Adventure:  Imagine Uganda,” an educational event with crafts and music for children and families at Deer Meadow Primary School in Greencastle, Indiana.  The event is open to the public; for more information, contact Laura Paul (information above), or refer to the Social Promise Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SocialPromise) page or the Social Promise website at www.socialpromise.org (https://www.facebook.com/SocialPromise).

Corti is the daughter of renowned Canadian surgeon Lucille Teasdale and her Italian pediatrician husband, Piero Corti.  In 1961, the couple took charge of St. Mary’s Lacor Hospital near Gulu in northern Uganda, and lived and worked at the hospital until their deaths. Dominique Corti was born and raised at Lacor Hospital. Today, she fights to ensure the survival of the Hospital and to sensitize the western world to the significant needs of a country in constant human crisis.

“Lacor Hospital is exactly the type of endeavor praised by today’s global health experts as a model of empowerment and sustainability,” states Sharon McGee Crary, executive director of Social Promise, president of the organization’s board, and an associate professor of biochemistry at DePauw University.  “Not only is the hospital run by Ugandans, its 600 employees are all Ugandan -- from the director to the custodial staff.  Lacor Hospital is situated in northern Uganda where there is only one doctor for every 19,000 people and where the population lives in enormous poverty caused by recently ended decades of armed conflict.  Dr. Corti is following in her parents’ footsteps, doing important work to make life better in a very difficult place in the world.”

Lacor has grown from a small 30-bed missionary hospital into one of the largest non-profit medical centers in equatorial Africa. The hospital has survived war, the outbreak of AIDS, and a deadly Ebola virus epidemic. Over the years, thousands of children came to spend the night under the hospital’s protection to avoid being captured and forced into military service by LRA rebels. Today, Lacor is a teaching hospital which provides training for the Ugandan nurses and laboratory technicians of tomorrow. The hospital also serves as the mandatory internship site for doctors trained in the three government facilities in the country, as well as the site for clinical training for the students of the faculty of medicine in Gulu.

Dr. Corti continues her parents’ unwavering commitment to Lacor Hospital.  In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of the hospital, she is the chair of the Fondazione Piero e Lucille Corti (Milan) and member of the board of directors of the Teasdale-Corti Foundation (Montreal). These foundations, along with Social Promise of Indiana, support Lacor Hospital and its mission to provide health care to the people of Northern Uganda.