Rebecca Parrish

She spent 27 years in the Philippines, becoming the first female doctor to practice in the country and greatly improving health in the area.

She is widely credited for being the driving force behind the Mary Johnston Hospital, which provided maternal care and services to impoverished people and for establishing the first nurses training institute in the country.

In 1906 when she was in the hospital recovering from another illness, she received a letter from the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church informing her that she was appointed to work in Manila, Philippines, to which she immediately agreed.

[5] When Parrish arrived in Manila she encountered a country reeling from the Philippine Revolution that ended three centuries of Roman Catholic rule under Spain.

She arrived immediately following the Philippine–American War, during which the United States fought from 1899-1902 to suppress the nationalist forces of Emilio Aguinaldo who sought independence rather than American occupation.

During this time United States forces burned villages, tortured suspected guerrillas, and employed civilian reconstruction policies that were seen as imperialist.

The conflict resulted in widespread violence, famine and disease, as well as prevalent hatred for the American government.

In the old days, with decaying fruits and vegetables, insects, especially mosquitoes, insufficient fresh milk for the babies, and the prevalence of cholera, smallpox, malaria, leprosy, dysentery, and tropical ulcers and eruptions, there was a serious health question.

She called her clinic the Dispensaria Betania or Bethany Dispensary and quickly acquired a small stock of drugs and medical tools.

In it she described her trip to a village across Manila Bay during which she witnessed a communion service in which there was no place to kneel because the dirt floors had turned to mud from a rainstorm.

Johnston was seeking to build a memorial to his recently deceased wife Mary, who had been active in promoting missionary work.

The Women's Foreign Missionary Society, hearing this, sought him out told him about Parrish's work in Manila, asked him to build a hospital there as a memorial.

[10] The hospital included departments for medicine, surgery, obstetrics, pre-natal care, pediatrics, orthopedics and public health.

The famed opera singer Madame Schumann-Heink once visited and was so impressed that she gave a special performance to benefit the hospital.

Many other hospitals in the city were destroyed or taken over, so Mary Johnston experienced an influx of patients while simultaneously seeing a reduction in many of its sources of income.

As years went by the hospital added a maternity ward, a clinic and a station to provide milk to malnourished infants and toddlers.

The medal read: The blessings of health and social welfare which the Philippines enjoy today have been inspired by the pioneering effort of this sincere and determined American missionary doctor, who came a long way across the sea, bringing Christian love, healing, and enlightenment, and a better way of life.

When the time of the anniversary came, the maternity ward was dedicated as the "Rebecca Parrish Pavilion" with a plaque reading The Mary Johnston Hospital is credited with drastically reducing infant mortality by providing advice on proper nutrition, care and sanitation.

[4] The structure, which was once a small clinic, is now a general hospital which serves as a training center for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals.

[13] Parrish was always regarded as the leading figure guiding the Mary Johnston Hospital, combining its medical duties with her religious mission.

A Born Missionary Recounts "…she saw to it that the hospital and its environs maintained a high moral standard in a district not noted for propriety.

[5] She devoted herself to women's issues in Manila as well, she recounts encountering sexism upon her initial arrival "They asked me point blank, "Can a woman know enough to be a doctor?"