Fighting For Our Lives
April 23rd 2020
Hi there Caddyshackers,
April 25th is nearly here. A time for us to pause and pay tribute to the armed service people who served and continue to serve Australia.
It is also time for us here at Caddyshack to get all historical and reflect on what has bought us to where we are today.
ettie rout: safe sex campaigner
We would like to give a shout out to a little known New Zealand woman by the name of Ettie Rout.
Ettie got a group of woman together to go to Cairo in Egypt in 1916 to provide care for the New Zealand soldiers.
Upon arrival in Egypt, Ettie quickly discovered the high incidence of venereal disease (sexually transmissible infections) amongst the men, and rather than seeing this as a moral problem, she saw it as a medical one and thus it should be approached like any other disease, with prevention!
Ettie swung into action and went to London to push for the New Zealand Medical Army Corps to adopt prophylactic measures.
She was successful, and by the end of 1917 the New Zealand Expeditionary Force had adopted her kit and made it a free and compulsory inclusion for all soldiers going on leave.
The prophylactic kit consisted of Calomel ointment, condoms and condy’s crystals.
Sadly Ettie received no credit for her role in this prevention, so we would like to say thank you Ettie for having so much foresight. You can read more on the marvellous Ettie at New Zealand History.
Secret of the Anzacs
Astonishing statistic:
During World War I, about 60,000 soldiers in the Australian Imperial Force were treated by army doctors in Egypt, Europe, and Australia for venereal diseases — almost the same number of diggers who were killed during the war.
Read more in this fascinating book Secret of the Anzacs.
Interesting fact:
Condoms still feature today in the survival kits of our armed men and women.
What we are loving right now
Right now we are loving Fighting For Our Lives launched Feb 2020 is a history of a community response to AIDS in Australia.
Affected communities bravely took action to address the crisis head on, forming organisations such as ACON.
Fighting For Our Lives is an inspirational story, one which took place against a backdrop of harrowing illness and death, fear and anger, hate and discrimination.
It captures the high stakes drama of the darkest years of the epidemic and the stories of the people at the very centre of a life-or-death struggle.
Until next time,
Peace, Love & Protection
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