Volunteer opportunity in El Salvador - Operating Room Nurses

Healing the Children SW Chapter needs 3-4 operating room nurses for a surgical trip to Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador. The trip's focus will be ENT and Plastics ages children through 17 years of age. The team will stay in San Salvador, El Salvador. The trip is from February 28-March 7th 2015. Voluneers pay, air, lodging and meals (dinners and breakfast). This organization will be returning to the hospital "Hospital La Divina Provdencia" for the 6th year and welcomes nurses willing to take on the challenge of operating in a less-than-familiar settings. :)

If interested, please email healingthechildren@comcast.net

Barco's Nightingale Scholarship - Josephine Sullivan

Our second Barco's Nightingale's Foundation scholarship winner has left for her mission trip to Ecuador February 1st. Josephine is an Operating Room (OR) Registered Nurse (RN) in Louisville Kentucky, where she has worked as an OR for the last 32 years. She has had the privilege of helping patients of all ages - children and adults in the operating room. 

Josephine started her love of travel and specifically the country Ecuador when she was 7 years old. Her family hosted an exchange student from the town of Quito, and from that moment on Josephine made a promise to herself that she would "Some day go to Ecuador". 

After forty or so years, Josephine finally held true to her promise and accompanied two Healing the Children (HTC) surgical teams to Ecuador in 2012. The two cities they traveled were Portoviejo and Bahia de Caraquez. In Portoviejo, the team accomplished 87 surgical procedures in two operating rooms in just four days. In Bahia de Caraquez, the team performed 70 surgical operations in four and a half days. With both of these trips, Josephine was hooked and she returned a better OR nurse because of her experiences and travels with these missions.

Healing the Children is a national organization that has provided medical care to children in need for over thirty years. There are 13 HTC chapters nationwide as well as many International Partners that are committed to helping children worldwide.     


February 1, 2013 Josephine left for Ecuador with Healing the Children thanks to the generous financial support from One Nurse At A Time and Barco's Nightingales Foundation. 



Have a great trip Josephine! We are looking forward to hearing about your trip when you return!

Thanks- 

ONAAT

Volunteer Opportunity - El Salvador

We were recently contacted by the Southwest Chapter of the National Healing the Children non-profit organization. This organization has been working for over 30 years to provide medical care to children in need. The organization has 13 chapters nationwide, and with many International Partners, they are committed to meeting the healthcare needs of children worldwide.

The Southwest Chapter is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Since 1989 Healing the Children Southwest has supported three major programs -

- Hardship Relief Project - which is for children in New Mexico (formerly "Local Children Program")
- International Pediatric Surgical and Medical Trips - Latin America
- International Inbound Children - children who come to Albuquerque from around the world

Healing the Children SW Chapter is on the look out for operating room nurses for a surgical trip to Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador. They are requesting that this is posted early, as El Salvador is a country that requires "Apostilles" which may take longer to obtain from some states. An "Apostille" is a form of authentication issues to documents for use in countries that participate in the 1961 Hague Convention.

The trip is specific to ENT and plastics for children to the age of 17. The trip will take place in March 9th-16th. All volunteers will pay for air, lodging and meals, there is a less expensive choice for lodging if you desire. The hospital that the organization will be working at is called La Divina Providencia - the organization has been returning to work there since 2006 and welcomes nurses willing to take on the challenge of operating in less-than-familiar settings.

If you are interested, please contact Bobbye at healingthechildren@comcast.net or call 505-401-8576

If there is anyone who has experience traveling with this organization, please contact us and let us know how your trip went, if you have any advice or suggestions, any or all information is welcome.

Kids...and more

Babies, toddlers, kids, and teenagers, make me cry, tired, sleepy, anxious, and wish to the high heavens that I had their energy. This week I was struck by a news story that sent me over the edge about three teenage boys hiking/climbing in the Cascades. 
  
I was traveling to work early Monday morning when I overheard NPR tell a story about these three teenage kids that were hiking/climbing in the Cascades and how two of the three boys fell off a steep cliff to their deaths. The third boy ran 5 miles down the trail to find help. 

This image was really vivid in my mind and I found myself immediately crying! Big giant crocodile tears were streaming down my face. After about 30 seconds and mascara all over the place, I thought: "jeesh girl, you better get it together you have a lecture in an hour and you don't need to look like a mess!" 

Somehow I pulled it together, continued to drive to work and proceed with my lecture. At the lunch break, I was speaking to my good friend about my early morning experience and surprisingly she shared with me her nightmares she has had about her little darling grandchild. Tears welled up her eyes as though the dreams were truths. 

For the rest of the week I pondered over these experiences, my experience and listening to my friend as she let her worries and fears escape out of her mouth and onto my ears. 

So, what on God's green earth did I decide to tell you these stories? Well, here's the reason. Have any of you ever watched the documentary that came out last year called Babies?  Here's the website and trailer: Babies Its an amazing film that follows four babies in different parts of the world. Its funny, scary and sad. But the real point to it all, I think is that in one way or another we all survive, whether our destiny is to live until we are 18 or 89. How we get there is our own journey, and it can be weird, good, and bad. 

Well, how does this tie into One Nurse At A Time? It sort of does and sort of doesn't. How it tied in for me is by recognizing that my own children and worries are very small and that someone somewhere else in this world has worries that far supersede my anxieties. 

What I can tell you is that if you feel passionate about children, helping, fixing, teaching and giving the best that you possibly can, then I would suggest you give it a try and do it outside of your cozy little home. Maybe, just maybe I am talking really to myself and telling myself to go out and care for some of these children that desperately need my help. 

Whatever this strange message is, I hope somehow it helps you in finding what your happiness, anxieties and wonders were this week. Heck, the week isn't even over yet!

Just for fun, I searched for pediatric needs on the website. Up popped Double H Ranch looks like maybe this is where I might try and spend a week this next summer. What about you?


--- ONAAT Crew