Louisa Akavi

Louisa Akavi is a New Zealand nurse who has worked for the Red Cross in conflict zones for decades. Born in Rarotonga and raised in Porirua, she completed her nursing training at Wellington Hospital in 1977, later did midwifery training in Scotland and then joined the New Zealand Red Cross. Her assignments took her to countries including Somalia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq, and in 1996 she survived an attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross hospital at Novye Atagi in Chechnya. In 1999 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, described as the Red Cross highest honour. She was kidnapped in Syria in October 2013 and later held by Islamic State forces, who reportedly kept her alive because of her nursing skills, and her captivity was kept secret until March 2019.