go to the Macedonian border and interview patients
forced out of hospitals.
"When I was there, 100,000 people showed up
after walking for miles and miles, and they weren't
allowed into Macedonia," she explains. "Suddenly,
there was a real need for doctors and anyone with
medical training. I started working in a clinic, and
that was the beginning of my aid work."
IMC, also working in that area, became
impressed with Dr. Fink's skills and asked her to
join their emergency response team for assignments
around the world. She has since organized humani-
tarian aid that empowers doctors and nurses in their
own countries, and she has arranged to bring in
medication, provide transportation and renovate
hospitals and clinics destroyed by war.
All that is among what she did in Iraq.
Medical positions for IMC are considered volun-
tary and usually short-term, with IMC paying for
transportation expenses, room and board. Dr. Fink
has supported herself by obtaining an advance for
the book and accepting writing assignments for
newspapers and magazines.
"Sheri is really good at winning the trust of local
populations, and winning the local trust is a big
part of our success," says Nancy Aossey, president
and chief executive officer of IMC. "She is hard-
working, dedicated, well-liked and able to establish
those relationships up front.
"Our focus is reaching the most underserved pop-
ulations in the world, and these are often areas that
are very unstable and dangerous. It takes a very
high level of dedication and courage to do this kind
of work under very tough conditions.
"Sheri is really brave and not afraid to go into dif-
ficult areas. She has been involved in a number of
IMC startups, and the startups are always the most
difficult times because there are very few amenities
and the situation is much more unknown."
Social Conscience
As Herschel Fink thinks back on his daughter's
younger years, he recalls the signs of her concern for
individuals with physical problems.
"Sheri always has been very self-directed,"
Herschel Fink says. "Her volunteerism caught my
attention when she was a student at West Hills
Junior High [in West Bloomfield], where she taught
herself sign language to work with hearing-impaired
children.
"She received a Bloomfield Youth Guidance
Award in 1982 for that, and she received another in
1986 for starting the Safe Rides Program at
On a journey earlier this
month back to the hospital,
left, and clinic building,
right, in Srebrenica, Bosnia,
are Dr. Andrei Slavuckij
(a Lithuanian anesthesiologist
who served with Doctors
Without Borders there
1993-1994); Dr. Ilijaz
Pilav (a Bosnian surgeon
and main character of Dr.
Fink's book); Muriel Cornelis
(a DWB administrator
from Belgium, one of the
first foreigners to enter
Srebrenica in 1993); Dr.
Sheri Fink; and Hans Ulens
(a Belgian water engineer
who served with DWB in
Srebrenica in 1993-1994;
nicknamed the "atomic
ant," he boldly stayed in
Srebrenica when it looked
as if the town would fall).
Andover High School [in Bloomfield Township].
She also was recognized in 1985 for heading the
Andover fund-raising effort for the Muscular
Dystrophy Labor Day Telethon.
"When Sheri spoke at her mother's funeral in
2001, she said she remembered her mother working
for volunteer organizations when [Sheri] was grow-
ing up, but one of the interesting contrasts is that
her mother, Annette, was somebody who liked stay-
ing home."
Fink is proud of his daughter for serving with the
West Bloomfield SCAMP, a summer pro-
gram for children with disabilities. He also is
proud that years later she worked with dis-
placed children at a summer camp in
Croatia and was instrumental in bringing a
war-injured child to California for treat-
ment.
Fink believes his daughter's early experi-
ence with Judaism helped develop the values
that motivate her. She was brought up in a
Reform home where Jewish holidays were
observed with family, and she had her bat
mitzvah and confirmation at Temple Beth
El.
"I think her Judaism was an inspiration in
terms of helping people," Herschel Fink
says. "A few years ago, she wrote a chapter
for a book about genocide, and I think her
understanding of the Holocaust has influ-
enced her human rights work."
Sheri Fink says her interest in Bosnia had a lot to
do with the vow of "Never Again."
"At the time the war broke out in Bosnia, I was
volunteering at the Holocaust Center of Northern
California," says Dr. Fink, who founded Students
Against Genocide (SAGE) at Stanford, where she
coordinated anti-genocide projects for campuses
nationwide.
"I was very attuned to this idea of people being
targeted just for their religion, and that was abhor-
rent to me. I think that's why Bosnia captured my
interest so much, and things just progressed from
there."
Robert Sapolsky, professor of neurology and neu-
rological sciences at Stanford, was Fink's thesis advi-
sor, overseeing her studies into gene therapy and
finding that she did excellent work.
"Sheri has been juggling a range of interests —
clinical medicine, basic neuroscience research, writ-
ing for the lay public and sociopolitical issues — for
a long time," Sapolsky says. "Although I knew she
had a strong social conscience, I wouldn't have
guessed she would have
.4, 77)11
wound up concentrating
as much as she has in
that last realm nor that it
would involve being in
war zones. What she's
doing is extraordinary,
and I'm immensely proud
of her."
One Piece Of Hope
\ I
Dr. Fink, who has been
to Israel twice on vaca-
tions, made a trip for
Physicians for Human
Rights, investigating how
STORY 01 s RC,' 10
Rvi;
the suicide bombings
were affecting medical
H1k.
practice. She visited a
Jerusalem hospital right
after an attack, and she spoke with doctors inside
the Gaza Strip.
"One thing that impressed me was that doctors
on both sides were cooperating, and I haven't seen
that in other conflict areas," Dr. Fink says. "To me,
that's the ultimate in medical practice. That was a
year and a half ago, when there didn't seem to be
any peace on the horizon. This was one piece of
hope that I came away with."
HOSPITAL on page 50
;IN
7/25
2003
49