Students on Voice of Gompa

Aaron Debah, a mental health nursing educator at United Methodist University’s Winifred J. Harley’s College of Nursing, has been interested in substance abuse prevention for a long time. So, when he heard about Nursing for All’s request for community-based public health program ideas, he knew right away what kind of program he wanted to design.

Aaron’s program operates in partnership with two outside groups: one, Ganta United Methodist High School (GUMS), and two, the radio station Voice of Gompa 106.5. Since beginning his program, Aaron has held both small weekly meetings and larger educational sessions at GUMS. His most recent information session was held December 18, and included 23 students and three staff attendees. Meanwhile, Aaron also uses his weekly radio show on Voice of Gompa to discuss the dangers of substance abuse with a wider audience. Sometimes Aaron will include a student from GUMS in his radio program, because he thinks teenagers are more apt to listen to each other than adults.

Katie Flanagan is the former Executive Director of Kupona Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving healthcare in Tanzania, with an emphasis on maternal-fetal health. Katie completed all fundraising, marketing, and administrative activities for Kupona. Prior to her years at Kupona, Katie worked at the New York Nativity Centers. Katie is an alumna of Boston College and has a Master’s of Theological Studies from Emory University.

We are thrilled to have Katie joining our team.

Thanks so much to the following people for their support in 2013:

Shelly’s family planning program in West Point, Monrovia, completed a training of twenty peer educators from October 21 through October 23. Now that they are trained, these peer educators have divided their neighborhood into sectors and will work in pairs to provide education and condom distribution to adolescents and adults in their sectors.

Delkontee with some of her community partners in King Gray.

Delkontee and Pate’s family planning initiative in the King Gray community has already conducted six community meetings about family planning options, completed 37 home visits, and supplied 54 women with family planning medications.

Aaron held a substance abuse prevention course on October 23 for fifteen students at Ganta Methodist High School.

Clinton and Solomon have reported that absences at the Trufiae School due to diarrhea or the common cold have dropped from 6% of the student population missing school days last year, to only 2% this year. They are quick to point out many of this year’s absences took place before they implemented their initiative for clean water and hand hygiene.

Cecelia’s adolescent sexual health class has been held weekly, with about 15 committed students, for over two months now.

Annette has screened dozens of community members in the VOA community for hypertension, and has begun re-screening those whose pressure was high on their first reading.

Sophie had conducted four informational sessions on HIV/AIDS prevention at the two high schools in the VOA community where she both lives and works.

Our Nurse-lead Public Health Initiative Pilot Program has launched

On Sunday, September 15, the eight nurses and one social worker participating in Nursing for All’s Nurse-lead Public Health Initiative Program met in Monrovia for the first time. Over the course of one packed day, they shared visions for their communities, developed tools to evaluate their programs, and discussed how they could support each other in the challenging months ahead.

Each participant also met with Nursing for All one-one-one to review their program’s schedule, budget, and evaluation tools. It was an amazing opportunity for us to get to know participating nurses better!

We’re proud to introduce our pilot’s participants:

Pate Chon, working in the King Gray Community of Monrovia
Aaron Debah, working in Ganta, Liberia
Delkontee King, working in the King Gray Community of Monrovia
Cecelia Morris, working in Paynesville, Monrovia
Sophie Reeves, working in the VOA Community of Monrovia
Annette Toegbaye, working in the VOA Community of Monrovia
Shelly Wright, working in the West Point Community of Monrovia
Solomon Yah, working in Ganta, Liberia
G. Clinton Zeantoe, working in Ganta, Liberia

Our participants are rolling out their programs now! Please click on “Initiatives” to learn more about who they are and the programs they’re running.

Nursing textbooks at the United Methodist University in Monrovia

We’ve been quiet lately at Nursing For All but we’ve been busy! We’re very excited to announce the launch of a new pilot program with the United Methodist University Nursing School in Monrovia and Ganta, Liberia.

The Nurse Lead Public Health Initiatives Program is a sponsored paid fellowship program for nurses in Liberia that will support them in designing, implementing and executing public health initiatives in their own communities. We want to empower local nurses to identify and solve public health problems that they’re uniquely positioned to address. We hope these programs will cover a broad range of public health concerns – home visits for the disabled, support groups for the mentally ill – whatever services are most needed in the communities these amazing nurses serve.

Our goal at NFA is to create opportunities for nursing education and career development in the developing world to combat the flow of nurses out of the places that need them most, and to leverage the incredible talent networks already available in these communities. Our pilot partnership with the UMU in Liberia represents an exciting opportunity to tackle these challenges head-on. Keep an eye on this space for information as we recruit and launch our inaugural class of NFA fellows.

Nursing for All Board member Richard Garfield has posted a video about online sources of public health data.  Dr. Garfield’s presentation, done in conjunction with the Assessment Capacities Project, is focused on disaster relief, but it is useful to anyone interested in public health. Video can be found at http://www.acaps.org/.

NFA is seeking nursing schools in low income countries that think they would benefit from Nursing for All’s services in fundraising, curriculum development, and the recruitment of volunteer faculty. Interested schools should email info@nursingforall.org. We’ll get back to you ASAP. Hope to hear from you soon!

Nursing for All would like to thank nurses everywhere for their many contributions to health and happiness!