Nurses Heart to Heart
Sharing Knowledge and Hope
Nurses are the beating heart of healthcare.
The mission of Nurses Heart to Heart is to equip nurses in the developing world with the training and resources they need to care for their patients.
In practical terms,
this means traveling to teach nurses where they are: in hospitals, nursing schools, refugee camps, and at conferences.
Nurses Heart to Heart also provides medications, medical supplies, training equipment, educational funds, and other needed resources to nurses, nursing schools, health clinics, and hospitals in the regions where we serve.
Nurses Heart to Heart
Recent and Upcoming Projects
January 2024
Nurses Heart to Heart traveled to Iraq in January of 2024 for the grand opening of the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre. Dr. Rich serves on the Centre’s Board of Trustees and was a keynote speaker at the 1st International Nursing and Midwifery Conference as part of the Centre’s opening events. In addition to speaking at the conference, Dr. Rich conducted workshops with nurses on diabetes patient education and care. This trip also included a visit to the Bajed Kandala Yazidi internally displaced persons camp.
Upcoming Projects
NHTH is planning a second supply and strategy trip to the Bajed Kandala Yazidi internally displaced persons camp in Iraq in 2024 .
NHTH has been invited to come teach in Mongolia in August 2024 and to Uganda in 2025. We are currently coordinating with local leaders to plan around their needs.
Ongoing Projects
Nurses Heart to Heart’s ongoing partnership with Bajed Kandala Yazidi internally displaced persons camp involves funding full nursing educations for students from the camp. These young nurses, once qualified, return to the camp to provide healthcare in their community. So far, Nurses Heart to Heart has funded two students, including Nisreen, pictured here at her 2023 graduation. NHTH will soon be sponsoring a third nursing student.
In addition to building the corps of nurses in the camp, NHTH is responsible for funding and supplying the small health clinic there, which serves over 9,000 residents.
Recent Communications
Click the images to read NHTH’s recent updates from the field as well as communications regarding our ongoing projects
Who We Are
Anita Rich, DNP, RN, CHFN, CDCES, CGNC
Founder and President
Dr. Anita Rich earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Emory University and her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Georgia State University. She began her nursing career at Emory University Hospital in 1981 and in 2011, she began serving as the Heart Failure Coordinator and Diabetes Care and Education Specialist at Emory Johns Creek Hospital. Dr. Rich is also a Senior Clinical Instructor at her alma mater, the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.
DNP: Doctor of Nursing Practice
RN: Registered Nurse
CHFN: Certified Heart Failure Nurse
Anna Rickrode
Director of Communications
Anna Rickrode was part of the very first NHTH trips to Iraq and Mongolia. She earned her Master of Science degree in ethics from the University of Edinburgh and spent nine years in nonprofit fundraising and communications before officially joining the NHTH team in 2022.
Nurses Heart to Heart Volunteers
Nurses Heart to Heart is grateful for the nurses, midwives, and others who volunteer their time and skills to travel with NHTH to the countries where we serve. If you are interested in volunteering with NHTH, please contact us!
Our History
The vision of NHTH has broadened considerably since its founding in 2010. What began as a mission to teach CPR and supply manikins to nurses in one developing country has grown to include educating nurses in multiple low- and lower-middle-income countries. We provide these nurses, community midwives, and medical staff with education specific to the areas where they currently practice, and we help provide the basic medical supplies they need to do their work. Our current focus prioritizes nurses and their colleagues in areas that are recovering from war and armed conflict.
To date, Nurses Heart to Heart staff and volunteers have trained nurses and served patients on 13 trips to Mongolia, 6 trips to the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and 1 trip to Tanzania.
NHTH Timeline
“Can you teach us how to pump the chest?”
On a medical mission in 2008, a Mongolian nurse asked Anita if she could teach her and her colleagues CPR. This simple request led to the founding of NHTH and an 11-year mission to teach CPR and donate CPR manikins in every province in Mongolia.
Joining Colleagues on Nursing Trips to Iraq
Anita had been volunteering as a nurse on international medical service trips since 2007 and in 2010 was invited to join a team traveling to the Kurdistan region of Iraq to perform pediatric congenital heart defect screenings and repairs, with a particular focus on educating their local counterparts at every stage.
On this trip, Anita had the opportunity to work with and teach Kurdish nurses at their patients’ bedsides. This teaching-as-we-work model was a perfect fit for the heart of NHTH and began to expand the vision of NHTH from a focus on teaching CPR across Mongolia to investing in nursing education more broadly and in the places where nurses work.
Iraq Now: NMDC, IDP Camp
NHTH began building a partnership with the Bajed Kandala Yazidi internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Duhok, Iraq in 2016, two years after the camp was established following the Yazidi genocide.
In 2023, Anita joined the board of the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre.
The IDP Camp and NMDC have become NHTH’s current focal points.
conTACT us
Nurses Heart to Heart
P.O. Box 3565
Alpharetta, GA 30023
Nurses Heart to Heart is an exempt organization under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Contributions are tax-deductible under section 170 of the Code.