We thought you’d enjoy this letter from Susie Pharney, one of the nurses who received a scholarship from Barco’s Nightingales Foundation through our work with One Nurse At A Time.
“Thank you to One Nurse At A Time and Barco’s Nightingales Foundation for helping support me on my medical mission to Kenya. Here is the story of my trip.
The team from Project Helping Hands, twenty six of us, all met together and assembled in Nairobi Kenya. We than drove seven hours to Oyugis where we held medical clinics for the next eight days. Oyugis is one of the areas in Kenya that has been hit the hardest by HIV, and thus, has hundreds of orphaned children and thousands of people in need of medical assistance. Every day the team would walk three miles through the countryside to get to the medical clinic site where we would be greeted by a couple hundred people waiting to be seen. In total the team saw over two thousand people on this medical mission.
Our team helped test patients for HIV and TB, and we treated several for malaria and dengue fever. My personal nursing knowledge was greatly enhanced on this trip. I was able to help treat and diagnosis diseases I had learned about in nursing school but had never seen. While there, we tried to provide as much health education as possible to ensure the medical treatments we were prescribing were sustainable after we left. I personally was reminded of the importance of health education and preventive care.
One of the saddest cases I saw was a seven month baby who was suffering from severe malnutrition and acute diarrhea. The baby weighed less than five kilograms and was severely dehydrated and lethargic. We paid for the baby to be admitted at the local hospital where she was treated for rota virus. When we left the baby was still hospitalized and was being tested for HIV, as the mother was HIV positive and had breast fed the baby. Preventative care in the form of immunizations and nutrition  as well as education on oral rehydration with diarrhea and not breast feeding when HIV positive may well have prevented this from happening. This case showed me how blessed we are in the United States with our medical system, even at a time when it is under much scrutiny.

One of my favorite memories of my time in Kenya was our daily walk home. Everyday around five o’clock, after clinic was finished, we would walk the three miles back to our hotel. Without fail we would be greeted by a hundred “jambo” and smiling faces and cheering children. It was not uncommon for little kids to come running up to us, grab our hands and walk us home.
I was touched by the Kenyan spirit and by the love and appreciation they had for us. I was over whelmed by the thanks they gave and the gratitude they had for a simple toothbrush or even just holding the hand of a “mzungu.”
Thank you again to everyone who helped support me and make my medical mission to Kenya possible.”