WHO Director-General dedicates speech to Tongan nurses choir [1]
Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 22:53. Updated on Friday, May 22, 2020 - 09:42.
Dressed in a Tongan designed shirt, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus dedicated his closing speech of the 73rd World Health Assembly in Switzerland on 19 May, to a Tongan nurses choir, who were supposed to perform at the conference but were unable to travel due to coronavirus restrictions.
“Last year, I had the honour of visiting several islands in the Pacific, including Fiji, Tahiti, Tuvalu and Tonga, where I was welcomed by a choir of nurses,” he said.
“When we originally planned this year’s World Health Assembly, we invited that choir from Tonga – a choir of nurses and midwives – to perform, to mark the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.”
“CoViD-19 has deprived us of that privilege, but today I am wearing this shirt from Tonga, which I got actually from the Minister, as a gesture of thanks and solidarity with our friends from the Pacific.”
“So I would like to dedicate my closing speech to the choir that we were expecting to join us from Tonga”.
Dr Tedros also told delegates about a Tongan name that was bestowed to him while in Tonga, the name is a chiefly poetic reference to the water of life and Vaea's whistle at the blowholes at Houma.
“And you might know, during my visit, I was even given a Tongan name. My Tongan name is Vaitoa’i Mo'ui Mapu'avaea. This is a typical Tongan name, and I’m so honoured.”
“To my Tongan friends and the rest of the Pacific, we hope you will be able to join us at next year’s Assembly, and do what we planned to do.”
CoViD-19
The conference was centred on the Coronavirus pandemic, which has so far caused the deaths of over 300,000 people worldwide. It has also sparked political tensions within countries as well as diplomatic feuding between countries.
Dr Tedros said, “COVID-19 has robbed us of people we love; It has robbed us of lives and livelihoods, It has shaken the foundations of our world, It threatens to tear at the fabric of international cooperation.”
“But it has also reminded us that for all our differences, we are one human race, and we are stronger together”,
“We may speak different languages, but we share the same DNA”,
“Let hope be the antidote to fear. Let solidarity be the antidote to division. Let our shared humanity be the antidote to our shared threat,” he said.