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Siw Westman
Loyal Staff Member Celebrates
20 Years of Service Jerusalem Scene could not let the occasion of 20 years service at St John Eye Hospital, Jerusalem pass without gratefully acknowledging the unstinting support of key staff member, Orthoptist Siw Westman.
We asked Matron and Nursing Director, Jackie Jaidy, to compose a brief paean to celebrate the career of her respected colleague:
I have known Siw Westman for the 20 years she has been working at St John and I’m very happy to be able to pass on to all of our Jerusalem Scene readers that she counts her varied experiences at the Hospital as amongst the highlights of her life.
Siw’s hometown is Örnsköldsvik in northern Sweden. Situated on the Swedish High Coast on the Gulf of Bothnia, the 24 hour day and the glory of the Northern Lights are familiar sights to the town and far, far removed from the prospects of the Holy Land.
The young Siw gained her nursing degree from Sundsvall University in 1981 and later obtained a post graduate Ophthalmic Technology and Nursing Certificate from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. She first heard of St John via a Canadian friend when she was working at the King Khaled Eye Institute in Saudi Arabia. She got in touch with the Canadian Priory of St John, which directed her to the Hosptaller’s Office in London , and soon found herself at the start of a very big adventure and on her way to Jerusalem. Siw began her long service with the Hospital as a Nursing Sister in 1990. She has spent time as a Ward and a Theatre Sister, and has experienced the stresses and complexities of working during periods of civil unrest first-hand. Siw, who is kindly sponsored by The Kennedy Leigh Charitable Trust in the UK, has also travelled extensively across the Palestinian territory with the Hospital’s Outreach team and to our satellite centres in Hebron and Anabta. In 2003 she briefly returned to Sweden to complete a training course in Orthoptics and then returned to join the Orthoptic team a year later. The picturesque village of Beit Jala, just outside of Bethlehem, is Siw’s home now. She delights in looking after her garden – whenever the water supply, which is not very regular in the Palestinian territory, allows. She is also a keen diver and underwater photographer – and dives regularly in the Red Sea.
When asked why she had stayed so long in Jerusalem, her answer was a familiar one to those who know Siw: “because of the close knit family at St John, which just grows and grows on you!”
Jackie Jaidy, Nursing Director