Volunteer Nursing in Malawi
Welcome to my blog site. I plan to record my impressions of a month long R.N. volunteer experience in a rural hospital in Malawi. Please travel along with me!
I welcome any comments or questions and would love some feedback.
"Begin doing what you want to be doing now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake..... - Francis Bacon
I am thrilled to be travelling to Namitete, Malawi for the month of December 2011. It has long been a dream to assist in whatever way I can in a health care setting in Africa. Since volunteering with World Vision for the last 5 years, and visiting Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia on separate trips, I have felt compelled to return to a sub Saharan African country and offer my experience and skills in a health care setting, in whatever way is needed. The World Vision trips I have been on to visit Area Development Projects and sponsored children, are aptly titled - "Destination Life Change" trips.
I can definitely attest to the fact that my life has been changed.
Seeing first hand the enormous challenges facing people in a developing country has been startling. Beginning to understand the overwhelming complexities in keeping individuals healthy in countries struggling with basic unmet needs of clean water, enough food and prevention of communicable diseases, also staggering. I am impressed with, and encouraged by the amazingly successful community based model of self-sustainability offered by World Vision, but the needs of the developing world for the provision of adequate health care services are never ending.
My goals for this journey are simple. Arrive safely with medical supplies, work hard, learn about tropical medicine, and offer support to beleagured nursing staff. A loftier goal would be to act as a role model and encourage nurses from the western world to assist in whatever way they can with the health care needs of a developing country.
If I have any time to spare, I hope to assist with the setting up of a women's self-sustainable sewing co-operative.
This blog site is dedicated to two nurses extraordinaire:
Jessie Dorothy Reynolds Ross, R.N., post-graduate in Obstetrics, - my mother
Florence M. Sheridan Reynolds, Nursing Sister in W.W.1 - my maternal grandmother
May the legacy of healing and compassion continue.
I welcome any comments or questions and would love some feedback.
"Begin doing what you want to be doing now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake..... - Francis Bacon
I am thrilled to be travelling to Namitete, Malawi for the month of December 2011. It has long been a dream to assist in whatever way I can in a health care setting in Africa. Since volunteering with World Vision for the last 5 years, and visiting Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia on separate trips, I have felt compelled to return to a sub Saharan African country and offer my experience and skills in a health care setting, in whatever way is needed. The World Vision trips I have been on to visit Area Development Projects and sponsored children, are aptly titled - "Destination Life Change" trips.
I can definitely attest to the fact that my life has been changed.
Seeing first hand the enormous challenges facing people in a developing country has been startling. Beginning to understand the overwhelming complexities in keeping individuals healthy in countries struggling with basic unmet needs of clean water, enough food and prevention of communicable diseases, also staggering. I am impressed with, and encouraged by the amazingly successful community based model of self-sustainability offered by World Vision, but the needs of the developing world for the provision of adequate health care services are never ending.
My goals for this journey are simple. Arrive safely with medical supplies, work hard, learn about tropical medicine, and offer support to beleagured nursing staff. A loftier goal would be to act as a role model and encourage nurses from the western world to assist in whatever way they can with the health care needs of a developing country.
If I have any time to spare, I hope to assist with the setting up of a women's self-sustainable sewing co-operative.
This blog site is dedicated to two nurses extraordinaire:
Jessie Dorothy Reynolds Ross, R.N., post-graduate in Obstetrics, - my mother
Florence M. Sheridan Reynolds, Nursing Sister in W.W.1 - my maternal grandmother
May the legacy of healing and compassion continue.