Women in focus
Renate Albrecht
On the winding path to equality
Marie-Thérèse and Josef Jeker
Marie-Thérèse and Josef Jeker originally planned to go to Bhutan. But an unexpected letter took them to Lesotho: there, a remote hospital, extreme poverty, and unfamiliar ways of life awaited—experiences that forever changed their worldview and commitment.
Marie-Thérèse Jeker and her husband Josef were set to go to Bhutan. They wanted to work for the country and its people in the South Asian mountain region. But then chance intervened in the form of a letter written by their friends, the Bleisch family, who were staying in Lesotho with their three small children. At the very end of the letter was the tricky question: “A doctor at Roma Hospital has dropped out: would you like to come?”. “We discussed it, weighed it up, spent nights tossing and turning, and then made the decision: we're going!” recalls Marie-Thérèse Jeker.
Today, young women have to justify themselves if they don't work. But back then, I didn't question it for a second
Marie-Thérèse Jeker, accompanying spouse
Back to the kitchen
But leaving is more serious for her than for her husband. While Josef Jeker, a doctor, soon strides through the corridors of the Roma Hospital in his white coat for SolidarMed, she resigns from her job as a language teacher at a secondary school in Basel, with no prospect of finding work in Lesotho. She will look after her husband and their two-year-old son, Dominique Paul. “Today, young women have to justify themselves if they don't work,” says Marie-Thérèse Jeker. “But back then, I didn't question it for a second”.
Josef and Marie-Thérèse Jeker (1976)
Marie-Thérèse Jeker takes care of the family. Soon, her son Lukas Thabo will complete the family's happiness. Housework takes much more time than in Switzerland: no dishwasher, no microwave, no washing machine. Marie-Thérèse Jeker shops, cooks, washes dirty nappies and occasionally casts a watchful eye over the garden where the children are playing.
We doctors could do very little in view of the country's major medical problems
Josef Jeker, assistant doctor in Lesotho
View on the world and one's own life
Fear for their own safety, the inability to speak the language of the local people, and the reluctance to flaunt their wealth in front of a completely destitute population shake their world view. In everyday situations, uncertainty about how to behave towards the local population becomes apparent. On a Sunday outing, the Jekers find themselves surrounded by children staring wide-eyed at their food. The scene remains etched in their memory as a symbol of their own powerlessness in the face of Lesotho's enormous problems. Does it all make sense?
It raises the question how Lesotho's healthcare system could be improved. “We doctors could do very little in view of the country's major medical problems”, recalls Josef Jeker. Major structural reforms would have been needed to redress the economic imbalance between the rich north and poor Lesotho. Their stay in Lesotho becomes a formative experience for the Jeker family. It changes their view of the foreign and their own culture.
In 1975, Norbert Strobel (left) examined the leg of a patient in Roma (Lesotho), with Josef Jeker (right) and a nurse assisting.
Changing Switzerland: equality and UN membership
Back in Switzerland, Marie-Thérèse Jeker becomes a mother for the third time. And she starts to take a greater interest in gender equality issues: in the church, in politics and in society. From 1993 to 2004, Marie-Thérèse Jeker was a member of the legislative council of Basel-Stadt for the then Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei (Christian Democratic People's Party, CVP). At the international level, as president of the CVP of Basel-Stadt, she campaigned for Switzerland to join the UN. For several years, she was also a member of the commission for development cooperation of Basel-Stadt. In the regional church, she is a co-initiator of the “Church Equality Initiative of Both Basel Cantons”.
In the 1980s, the issue of the “role of the accompanying spouse” was raised within SolidarMed. Josef Jeker, who was president of SolidarMed from 1984 to 1989, devoted an entire general meeting to this topic. The gradual structural change at SolidarMed from a “sending organisation” to a “programme organisation” made the discussion about the “role and function of accompanying spouses” seem obsolete. “Today, SolidarMed is a recognised NGO that relies primarily on experts from countries in the Global South,” say Marie-Thérèse and Josef Jeker.
Josef Jeker
The fact that SolidarMed attaches great importance to gender equality issues is not least thanks to these two and the insights they brought back from the Southern African highlands.
People who have shaped SolidarMed
Since its founding in 1926, people with commitment and courage have shaped the history of SolidarMed. In this portrait series, we highlight individuals whose dedication has had a lasting impact on the development of SolidarMed and on healthcare in Africa.
This portrait is an extract from a series of historical eyewitness accounts, which were compiled on behalf of SolidarMed by Marcel Dreier and Lukas Meier. The historians’ complete work is available as a book.
