Dr. Margaret Ogola, renowned Kenyan author and medical director of Cottolengo HIV and AIDS Hospice, passed away Sept. 22. At the World Congress of Families II in Geneva (1999), Dr. Ogola received the WCF Familias Award for Humanitarian Service.
A pediatrician based in Nairobi, Dr. Ogola was the author of two highly acclaimed novels about the lives of four generations of Kenyan women in a rapidly changing world—The River And The Source and I Swear By Apollo.
Besides her service at the Cottolengo Hospice, Dr. Ogola was vice president of Family Life Counseling in Kenya, which works to improve the condition of Kenyan women. From 1998 to 2002, she was national executive director of the Commission for Health and Family Life of the Kenya Episcopal Conference.
Christine Vollmer, a member of the World Congress of Families Management Committee, who visited Dr. Ogola’s hospice in Nairobi, reported: “The beauty and order in this hospital and the happy little faces was very striking. Margaret’s care for these children was giving them a survival rate unparalleled, I believe, anywhere. Her motherly love and her extraordinary medical excellence, combined with her vocation to defend every single life were quite overwhelming. What a beautiful woman!”