The NHTH Team made it safely back to the United States this past Tuesday (April 8). Everyone is readjusting to the US time-zone and trying to rest while also diving back into their regular responsibilities, but their hearts are full! This trip to Uganda was wonderful and it will take a while to process all that we experienced. We're eager to build on the relationships formed on this trip and we look forward to sharing more about that soon. But first, we're catching up on a couple of in-country updates from the last few days that the team was in Kampala!
On Saturday (April 5), the NHTH team visited a local organization, Ravens Ministries, which is based in Wakiso district in Kampala—the same district where Humble Vessel Clinic operates. The mission of Ravens Ministries is to help young adults break out of cycles of poverty by providing access to higher education while meeting their physical and spiritual needs.
Two of the young adults who are supported by Ravens Ministries attended our day-long intensive earlier in the week: Joel is a nursing student and Vicky is studying to be a lab technician. NHTH connected with Ravens Ministries through our director of communications, Anna!
While Anna's main professional focus is Nurses Heart to Heart, she also works with other small nonprofits.
In August of 2024, she began working with Ravens Uganda, the US-based nonprofit that serves as the fundraising sister-organization to Ravens Ministries. In September of 2024, Nurses Heart to Heart was in the process of planning their first trip to Uganda and Anna realized that NHTH would be in Wakiso district, where Ravens Ministries is located. She immediately sent an email to connect the two organizations.
Anna says, "Realizing that Nurses Heart to Heart would have a chance to connect with Ravens Ministries was a real 'worlds collide' moment for me. On paper, they don’t have much missional overlap and NHTH does most of its current work in Iraq, but then NHTH's Uganda plans started to come together and I realized that there are Ravens Youth pursuing various paths in medicine and healthcare—investing in nursing education is a huge part of NHTH—and I got really excited that there could be a meaningful connection beyond just the fact that I write emails for both organizations!"
The NHTH team got to visit Ravens Ministries and spend time with the founders, Abel and Mildred (pictured below in the front row with Anita, Virginia, and Jane), and some of the youth. A highlight of the day was Joel demonstrating his new CPR training to the Ravens community!
While the Nurses Heart to Heart team was visiting Ravens Ministries, they were able to discuss some health topics with the group and spend time with youth who had specific questions. Abel and Mildred were there to learn as well so they can further support these young adults on their health journeys.
Nurses Heart to Heart and Ravens Uganda already have plans for how we can collaborate going forward: NHTH hopes to be able to assist with the tuition for Ravens Youth who enroll in nursing and midwifery courses (keep an eye out for more about this when we celebrate International Nurses Day in May!). And our next trip to Uganda will include a full day of teaching CPR at Ravens Ministries and making sure they have a set of manikins to offer training in their community.
Abel shared that they were all so saddened by the recent death of a woman who collapsed while walking on the road, and no one knew how to help her. Community-wide CPR training will be a great addition to the other community education opportunities that Ravens Ministries offers.
Serving effectively overseas requires excellent local partners and we are so grateful for David and Charles at Humble Vessel Clinic and the others who did so much work ahead of our visit. And we're excited to add Abel and Mildred of Ravens Ministries to our list of local partners going forward!
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