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 in which they currently practice, and we help provide the basic medical supplies they need to do their work.
Nurses Heart to Heart Timeline
2008: First Trip to Mongolia
On a medical mission in 2008, a Mongolian nurse asked Anita if she could give her and her colleagues hands-on CPR training: “Can you teach us how to pump the chest?” This simple request led to the founding of NHTH and a successful 11-year mission to teach CPR and donate CPR manikins in every province in Mongolia.
2010: 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 worked with and taught 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.
2016: Yazidi Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Iraq
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 carried out by ISIS.
This partnership has developed over the years to include regular material support with NHTH
providing medications for the clinic pharmacy and funding needs such as heating fuel for the intense winter months and paying health clinic staff salaries. Nurses Heart to Heart also provides complete funding for students from the IDP camp who wish to become nurses. To date, NHTH has sponsored two nurses who are now practicing in the Yazidi community in Iraq.
2021: First Trip to Tanzania
NHTH served as part of a group of medical volunteers providing surgical repairs for children with congenital heart disease. The goal of the trip was to train surgeons, physicians, and nurses to safely provide pediatric cardiology surgeries in Tanzania. This was in partnership with the local organization One New Heart Tanzania.
Anita was there with other nurses from the US to teach Tanzanian nurses at the bedside how to care for pediatric patients after their open-heart surgery or cardiac catheterization procedures. It was the first time some of these surgeries had ever been taught or done in Tanzania—which of course meant that the nurses responsible for post-op care were also doing first-of-its-kind work!
2024: Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre in Iraq
In 2023, Anita joined the board of the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre, which was founded by one of NHTH’s key partners in Kurdistan, Eva Said. In 2024, the NMDC celebrated its official opening with the 1st International Nursing and Midwifery Conference. Anita gave one of the keynote presentations at the conference to over 300 attendees and taught 40 students in workshops on diabetes patient education and care at the newly opened Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre.
NHTH’s ongoing partnership with the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre has included additional teaching trips as well as the provision of 202 scholarships for day-long continuing education intensives for nurses and midwives at the Centre.
2025: First Trip to Uganda
Nurses Heart to Heart hosted three day-long teaching intensives for nurses and other healthcare providers in Kampala, Uganda. We trained a total of 145 participants, including 20 nursing instructors from two nursing schools.
The NHTH team covered hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases; each afternoon, we provided hands-on CPR and choking recovery training. We visited nursing schools, hospitals, community clinics, and maternity hospitals. During these visits, we were able to train an additional 75 doctors, midwives, and nurses in CPR and choking recovery. 
2026 and Beyond: Planning for Significant Growth
Trips to Tanzania, Iraq, and Uganda are in the works and we are building toward a sustained rhythm of four teaching trips a year going forward. NHTH will also strengthen its advocacy work through ongoing field research and work with local nurse leaders and government officials to build nursing policy in the countries where we serve.