>Rathfelder: +Category:Indian obstetricians; ± 3 categories using HotCat

2021-05-03T21:25:59Z

+Category:Indian obstetricians; ± 3 categories using HotCat

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{{Short description|Indian-Kenyan doctor}}
'''Mary Mathilda de Sousa''' (1890–1953) was an Indian-Kenyan doctor. She was the first Asian female doctor in [[Kenya]], practicing from 1919.<ref name="MonnaisWright2016">{{cite book|author1=Margaret Frenz|editor2=David Wright|editor=Laurence Monnais|title=Doctors beyond Borders: The Transnational Migration of Physicians in the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YtsQDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA150|year=2016|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4426-2961-5|pages=150–1|chapter=From Zebra to Motorbike: Transnational Trajectories of South Asian Doctors in East Africa, ca 1870-1970}}</ref>

==Life==
Mary Mathilda Pereira was raised in Mazagon, [[Bombay]], one of fourteen children of Peter Paul Pereira. She graduated from [[Grant Medical College]] in 1914 as a [[Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery]]. She worked as a medical officer in the [[Bhavnagar district]] and [[Chhota Udaipur district]] before returning to Bombay to work at the Kerrawala Maternity Hospital. In 1919 attended the Lahore session of the [[Indian National Congress]].<ref name="MonnaisWright2016"/>

After marrying Dr Alex Caetano Lactancio de Sousa in 1919, she moved to [[Nairobi]] with him. There she worked as a doctor and midwife.<ref name="MonnaisWright2016"/> After the Lady Grigg Welfare League was formed in 1926, de Sousa successfully fundraised to build a maternity hospital, the [[Lady Grigg Indian Maternity Home]], for Indian women.<ref name="GreenwoodTopiwala2016">{{cite book|author1=A. Greenwood|author2=H. Topiwala|title=Indian Doctors in Kenya, 1895-1940: The Forgotten History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5gMCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA142|year=2016|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-137-44053-2|page=142}}</ref> She and her husband refused a place on the board of governors, since the hospital's constitution did not provide for balanced representation of Indians and Europeans on the committee. She was also involved in the Indian Education Board, and in the [[Kenya Girl Guides Association|Girl Guides]] and [[Kenya Scouts Association|Boy Scouts]].<ref name="MonnaisWright2016"/>

Mary de Sousa hosted important Indian visitors in her house, such as [[Sarojini Naidu]], who led the [[East African Indian National Congress]] twice. In the mid-1940s she became ill, and was mostly confined to her house for the last decade of her life.<ref name="MonnaisWright2016"/>

== Personal life ==
Mary Pereira married a fellow doctor, Alexio Caetano Lactancio de Sousa, in 1919. He survived her when she died in Nairobi in 1953, aged 63 years. They had three children, Theo, Peter, and Aura; their son Peter A. de Sousa became a doctor like his parents.<ref>Dr. Alan de Sousa Rodrigues, [https://sites.google.com/site/newsletterbrochures/dr-alexio-caetano-lactancio-de-sousa "Alexio Caetano Lactancio de Sousa"] Dr. Ribeiro Goan School Ex-Students.</ref>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:de Sousa, Mary}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1953 deaths]]
[[Category:Medical doctors from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Indian women medical doctors]]
[[Category:Kenyan obstetricians]]
[[Category:Kenyan women physicians]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to Kenya]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian medical doctors]]
[[Category:Indian obstetricians]]

Mary de Sousa - Revision history

>Rathfelder: +Category:Indian obstetricians; ± 3 categories using HotCat