Dubai: Nurses, who have assumed a more significant role during the pandemic, have received a unique tribute thanks to a month-long Dubai art campaign which went all out to honour them in May.
Artists and nurses from various countries took part in the social media campaign organised by the Art4You Gallery. The campaign was held under four separate categories.
“Every year, the International Nurses Day is celebrated on May 12 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birthday. This time, when the world celebrated her 200th birth anniversary, we wanted to go beyond the day to celebrate the nurses’ contribution to society around the world,” said Jesno Jackson, CEO/Founder of Art4You Gallery.
“We wanted to seize the opportunity to shine a light on the incredible work nurses and midwives do around the world especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The campaign focused on the need for nurses to become more active and vocal in policy development and implementation.
“2020 is the International Year of Nurses and Midwives. This is an apt year to celebrate and support nurses around the world and we used the hashtag #IND2020 to say special thank you to them and to support and empower them on their special day, week and month,” said Jackson.
The month-long campaign saw the participation of 20 nurses, 25 doctors and 35 artists and art lovers from different countries.
Jackson said the gallery joined the International Council of Nurses (ICN) which annually produces an international campaign to educate and assist health workers globally with a different theme every year.
A Voice to Lead
“This year the ICN had the theme - “A Voice to Lead”. We joined the ICN for three types of campaigns under the title “Nurses- A Voice to Lead-with Art,” said Jackson, who created a coffee painting on paper for the initiative.
In the first part of the campaign titled “I am proud to be a nurse”, nurses working with different departments of hospitals took part by picturing themselves while holding a placard of the title.
The second campaign was about making posters with the theme “Talking about nurses”.
It was supported by artists and art lovers of varied backgrounds raising their voice to deliver Nurses Week statements.
“Nursing is one of the oldest and most respected professions in the world and it will probably stay like this forever. We have only gratitude and admiration for nurses who hold our hands in some of the most difficult moments of our lives,” said participant and Emirati artist Ahmed Rukni Al Awadhi.
In the third segment, the participating artists, who included a nurse as well, dedicated paintings surrounding the theme of nursing.
Jackson said the art community added one more segment to the campaign by organising video messages by doctors of various specialties from different parts of the world talking about “Nurses-A Voice to Lead”.
