Jack Preger is a doctor and humanitarian. Immediately after graduating from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin in 1972, Preger travelled to Bangladesh to provide assistance to refugees of the Indo-Pakistan War. In 1979, he went to Kolkata, where he set up an illegal street clinic and founded the Calcutta Rescue Foundation. This foundation provides free medical care and education to the poorest people in Kolkata and West Bengal. By 2006, the foundation had set up 4 free clinics and two schools. It also runs a handicraft workshop and two weaving centers. Preger was jailed by the government for his work in 1981, and has had re-entry visas repeatedly refused. He was on trial for over eight years in India, before Sir Edmund Hillary, who was then the New Zealand High Commissioner in Delhi, helped to get the charges dropped.
A Queen’s Journal interview with Preger during his visit to Queen’s focused on the work he had done to combat poverty in Kolkata and Bengal, including operating four free clinics, two schools and various outreach programs. Preger claimed that enacting large scale change is very difficult due to the significantly unbalanced distribution of wealth, the legal complications associated with the status of the refugees and the overwhelming number of medical cases that his organization does not have enough consistent funding to help. However, he said, moderate change could still make a big difference: preventative care is one of the most important measures to take, from educating people on safer practices and immunizing them to prevent serious illnesses to providing supplies to aid in maintaining a cleaner atmosphere. Preger also touched upon the resistance that he faced with the government in response to his efforts. He criticized the Indian government’s preference to spend money on defense over health services.