OR Cap

The cap was worn by Eileen Solomon on a medical philanthropy mission in Liberia. Solomon has been Senior Director of Special Events at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City since 2001. She first went to Liberia in 2008 as coordinator of a medical team providing care for people there. A conversation at a Clinton Global Initiative event had led a Mount Sinai trustee to underwrite the initial mission. Solomon heard about the plans and joined the trip. Solomon explained: “In my role at Mount Sinai, I manage a team who does the fundraising, cultivation, stewardship events for seven hospitals, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and special projects for the Dean and President. My skill set is transferable so coordinating 30 professionals and medical students and liaison with the Liberian government, creating food menus for 14 days, ground and air transportation, security and the other details suited me well. . . . As the only non-medical participant, I was embraced by the team, worked in the OR [operating room], became the photographer to document the surgeries, helped clean the OR’s, did anything that was needed to be engaged with the team. “We were at Phebe Hospital in Bong County, about four hours outside of Monrovia, where they also have a fistula program for the women who had surgery. They live there with their children and learn skills to become members of their villages once they are ready to re-enter. As you may be aware, there is a great deal of stigma towards the women and they struggle. Not all husbands and families welcome them back home. In the compound, they learn sewing, baking, hair styling, tie-dye, cooking, skills that could make them independent. One of our surgeons provided local fabric and suggested that they make the OR caps and sell them as a way to earn money. Purchasing them was easy and wearing them was a joy and added a great deal of color to the OR. The women were very proud of their skills. They also went on to make simple all-purpose bags, good for carrying anything. I use mine when I go to the market.” At the time, as a result of the civil war, Solomon explained, there were 35 doctors in the country. Liberian officials denied that there were any incidence of female cancers, and a woman needed permission from a male in the family to get treatment. The 2008 trip was the beginning of an ongoing relationship between Mount Sinai and Liberian medical community, staff and patients. The Sinai team has been training local doctors in obstetrics and gynecological care and has developed a relationship with the Liberian College of Physicians and Surgeons. In addition, going on international medical missions has become part of many students’ educations. Solomon, like other members of the team, developed personal relationships with colleagues in Liberia, and she lost friends there to Ebola in 2014. As of 2018, she had gone to Liberia 18 times, usually for 2 weeks at a time using her vacation time for the trips. Solomon grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, in a family of modest means. Volunteering was an important part of her family life and for her it included giving time at the synagogue, as a candy striper, and as a Girl Scout. Her career, she believes, is an outgrowth of her childhood volunteering. In addition to her Liberia experience, she gives time to Kravis Children’s Hospital at The Mount Sinai in New York on Sundays. In 2018, she has travelled to Vietnam with a group that provides peer-to-peer training for women who are survivors of breast cancer so they can support other women with the disease. Currently not on view