Nurses of the Nations

Four Tools to Empower the Poor.

Nurses for the Nations Speaks at Emory’s International Medical Volunteerism Conference in Atlanta, Georgia

Nurses for the Nations was one of the guest speakers at the IMVC the weekend of April 16th through the 18th and spoke about empowering the indigenous through ‘bottom-up approach’ mission programs that help the poor create lasting change in their communities through education and community participation and involvement. The conference, which had guest speakers from all over the country, included Christian and other faith-based and charitable service organizations who wanted to make a difference in the world.

“The challenges of the poor are complex and daunting,” states Mary McMahon, President of N4N. “We can’t just treat and leave any more, we have to ensure that those we serve are provided with tools to transform their own communities.” McMahon stressed that the tools within N4N’s service sustainability model included spiritual support with individuals through prayer, counseling and dialogue about real issues. She also shared the importance of developing partnerships in countries by teaming up with other international and faith-based organizations; ensuring in-country medical workers and staff are utilized as co-partner’s during service projects. Mary stated that the needs were huge. Working together to create win-win strategies which make the greatest impact will hopefully, begin tearing down ’walls of territorialism’ between organizations. Emory accomplished this at the international conference. Organizations came together in a spirit of unity and understanding.

In January, N4N partnered in Africa during the second phase of its project to eradicate malaria at the village level, recently changing the name of the project to create greater awareness of the issue. The project, called  ‘Operation, Make Malaria Disappear Once and for All,’  combined N4N nurses with the Florence Nightingale Institute of Health Science, along with a Liberian RN and UAP’s (Unlicensed Assistant Personnel). In addition, the local church (Living Bread ministries) was there, to help support the team, bring the message home about spiritual and moral issues and support the team’s message about compliance with combating and eradicating the disease of malaria through treatment, teaching and training. Village leaders were included in the project and actively participated. Mary believes that churches are deeply ingrained in the social problems of the indigenous and understand the suffering they go through, so it is important to create strong networks in these areas in order to affect sustainable change. They (churches) play a significant role in the healing process with their own people.

Nurses for the Nations offers a holistic approach in their service model which includes the spiritual and mental aspects of care. ”Its always been a part of our nursing evidence based practice (spiritual support), we’ve just been silent about it for a long time. We need to be able to talk about it openly and acknowledge that ‘healing’ has a much deeper connotation than ‘cure’ when we’re dealing with treating the ‘whole’ person.

The four tools to empowering the poor? McMahon shares these points:

1. Don’t just treat medical illness and leave. Inherently, this is not a bad thing. We are called to serve the needs of others. But the ‘treat and leave’ method creates a connection of dependency. Finish up your project by providing some level of training and education. The poor and indigenous are very intelligent and want to learn. They may not have a ‘college degree’ but they have innate skills which makes them eager and ready to support their people with transforming their social and environmental communities.

2. Develop a strategy model which is focused and targeted with a specific area you and village participants can do something about. Start small. It brings big wins and lasting results. You don’t have to try and conquer the whole world at once. Life-giving change happens by working with one person, one village, one heart at a time.

3. Record your results. Take statistics. Your supporters want to see what you’ve done, how you’ve done it and if impact is being made. Remember, sustainability is also key to medical faith-based service work.

4. Finally, invite the indigenous to participate in your service model. Allow them to take ownership in their own health, social and spiritual welfare. Include the Health Department, Ministry of Health and in-country medical workers as a part of your project.

Four of Nurses for the Nations Board of Directors pose for a picture on the Emory Conference grounds – from left to right: Nina Petrarca RN, BSN International Field Operations, Vicki Agyekum RN, MSN Teaching and Training Programs, Sally Welsh MSN RN, National Community Programs and far right, Mary McMahon RN, M.B.A. MS Founder and President

N4N is not a disaster relief organization. It recognizes the tremendous work other organizations play in this area of service, but believes its particular nursing niche is to create models of sustainability so the poor can be actual participants in transforming their own families, homes and villages. The organization realizes this is a more difficult approach but sees this as a unique work they’ve been called to in the great commission.

“We believe that creating an environment of dependency with the indigenous we serve, is counter productive to them experiencing their own God-given gifts and ability to grow. There is a deeper way we are called to love others as part of the gospel message. ‘Love others as you love yourself.’ This is a hard concept to understand, because most of our lives, we struggle with figuring out just what that means and how that translates to serving others in the greater context of service. When we empower the under-served and support them through their own struggles to own their communities, we give them the fullness of freedom to accept the message we share with them-and that is, that a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ invites them to actively participate in their own healing process, develops more than just a connection, and fosters a relationship greater than themselves that will have tremendous significance for them now and in the future. It gives them fresh possibilities and perspectives for experiencing God’s hope, inner transformation and lasting change. We plan to stay that course, unless we’re convinced otherwise.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 10:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.