Susan Buxton Wood

Susan Wood (1918-2006), British philanthropist and writer who helped create the African Medical Research Foundation (Amref) in Kenya and founded an enterprise to employ poor single mothers. She lived much of her life in Kenya.

Life Susan Buxton was born in an African mud hut. At the time, her English missionary parents were living in the Ituri Rainforest in an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the age of two, she was carried in a litter on a six-month journey to the Nile and on to England where she spent her childhood. During training as a World War II nurse, she met the physician Michael Wood and they married in 1943, eventually having four children together.

The young family moved to Kenya in 1947 seeking to make a difference there. Michael Wood set up a medical practice in Nairobi but demands for his surgical skills came from far beyond the city causing him to charter private flights to reach patients in remote locations. Soon he learned to fly and bought his own plane. To expand the reach of medical care, Susan and Michael Wood worked together to recruit more doctors and create the Flying Doctors Service, which evolved into the African Medical Research Foundation, and still later to Amref Health Africa.

Kazuri Beads enterprise In the 1960s, Susan and Michael Wood started a coffee plantation on the estate of the late Karen Blixen (made famous in the award-winning movie Out of Africa) about 30 minutes from the center of Nairobi. In 1975, Susan set up a new business in a back garden called Kazuri beads; Kazuri is a Swahili word meaning small and beautiful.

Tanzanian years The Wood family lived and farmed for a time on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania. There, according to Hughes, "Sue enjoyed being a farmer. In 1975 the farm was taken over by the Tanzanian government, and the Woods, sadly but without complaint, moved to Karen [in Kenya]."

Last years Susan Wood died in 2006 at her Nairobi-area home at the age of 87, survived by four children, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Hughes recorded her thoughts about life in Africa, "She always saw herself as an African and had a deep understanding of the struggles they faced. She said: 'I love the people, and I love Africa because everything is unexpected, nothing goes quite straightforwardly.'"

Awards and honors In 1990, Susan Wood was honored by the British government as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Selected works Throughout her life, Wood wrote about African life and issues and authored several books and volumes of poetry. Wood, Susan. Kenya: The Tensions of Progress ... Issued Under the Auspices of the Institute of Race Relations. London: O.U.P, 1960. Print. Wood, Susan. A Fly in Amber. London: Collins-Harvill, 1964. Print. Wood, Susan. A String of Beads: Stories of Africa Today. Nairobi: publisher not identified, 1995. Print. Wood, Susan. Tree Music. Nairobi, Kenya: Jacaranda Designs, 2002. Print. Wood, Susan. Tales from Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: Jacaranda Designs, 2004. Print. Wood, Susan. As Falls the Rain. Nairobi, Kenya: Jacaranda Designs, 2005. Print.