Berova-Orahovac Nina

About

After graduating from the Saint Petersburg Medical Academy in Russia, she became the second Bessarabian doctor to work in Bulgaria. She did her residency at Aleksandrovska Hospital in Sofia, serving as a doctor during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. Later, she worked in hospitals in Vidin, Lovech, and Koprivshtitsa, before returning to Sofia. Together with Velichko Georgiev, she founded the Bulgarian Institute of School Hygiene to train hygiene and health professionals to work as school doctors. In 1905, she was one of the founders of the women's association that established summer camps to educate and promote the health of students. She worked as a school nurse until 1915 and remained active in the Bulgarian Medical Association until her death. After completing her studies, Berova moved to Bulgaria and began her residency in 1885 at Aleksandrovska Hospital in Sofia. She worked as a doctor during the Serbo-Bulgarian War, performing surgical procedures in Sofia. Later, she worked in hospitals in Vidin, Lovech, and Koprivshtitsa, before returning to Sofia. She was the head of the surgery department at the Vidin Hospital from 1886 to 1890. She then worked as a senior physician in Lovech, and in both Koprivshtitsa and Sofia, she worked as a specialist in internal medicine. Berova married the Montenegrin doctor Petar Orahovac, whose family also consisted of Bulgarian emigrants during the Ottoman rule. A year after obtaining his medical credentials in Moscow in 1883, Orohovac moved to Bulgaria. In 1892, their son, Dimitar, was born. He would go on to become an internationally renowned doctor and university professor. In 1904, together with Velichko Georgiev, Berova-Orahovac organized the Bulgarian Institute of School Hygiene, with the aim of training hygiene and health professionals to work as school doctors. At that time, she was working as a school doctor at Kindergarten No. 1 in Sofia and would continue there until 1915. Many women doctors worked as school doctors after 1904 due to the negative attitude towards women doctors. Competition for positions led many male doctors and the media to stereotype women in the profession as lacking scientific competence and training, as well as the physical and mental strength required for the job. Working with female doctors such as Ana Selakovich-Ivanova and Desha Kazasova-Gencheva, as well as other women, in 1905, Berova-Orahovac founded Женско Дружество За Летни Ученически Колонии "Здравец" (The Women's Association for the Student Summer Colony "Health"). The idea behind the summer school camp was to provide children with opportunities to participate in healthy environments and strengthen both their bodies and minds. The first camp was opened in the village of Pancharevo and was under the supervision of a doctor and a teacher. The facility offered sleeping quarters, with a kitchen and a dining room to prepare healthy meals for the students. Berova-Orahovac was one of the main activists in the summer camp movement. She retired as a school hygienist in 1919, but remained active in the Bulgarian Medical Association, of which her husband had been a founder.