December 2024: Our Year By the Numbers

2024 has been a great year and together with you, our donors and friends, we have made a big impact!

• 150 lbs of prescription and over-the-counter medications were delivered to supply the health clinic of the Bajed Kandala II IDP camp in Duhok, Iraq.

• 202 scholarships were provided for day-long continuing education intensives at the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre in Erbil, Iraq. 

• Anita gave one of the keynote presentations at the 1st International Nursing and Midwifery Conference in Iraq to over 300 attendees!

• We taught 40 students in workshops on diabetes patient education and care at the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre in Erbil, Iraq.

• We taught 45 students from 3 different hospitals in two sessions on heart failure and coronary artery disease at the Erbil Surgery Specialty Hospital Cardiac Center in Erbil, Iraq.

And, no less important, we spent hours meeting and strategized with several partners, both old and new, in Erbil and Duhok, and in Uganda. It isn't possible to quantify, but these meetings represent a great deal of hope, which is another major impact of NHTH's work. 

Local healthcare providers and educators are eager to see their communities taken care of and their healthcare colleagues equipped and uplifted. When we meet together to discuss their needs and how NHTH can help, it is the start of seeing that hope fulfilled. 

If you are a Nurses Heart to Heart donor, these impacts are yours! Your financial support makes all of this work possible. So many of you gave scholarship funds in honor of healthcare providers and loved ones as part of our special fundraising effort to celebrate International Nurses Day in May. And several folks reading this email are monthly supporters of the work of NHTH. From the flights to the medications to the scholarships, your generosity is integral to Nurses Heart to Heart—when we talk about the "NHTH team," that includes you! Thank you. 

Looking ahead, we have multiple teaching and supply trips to Iraq in the works for the coming year. And two new (and exciting!) additions to our normal projects: 

In 2025, NHTH has plans for a first teaching trip to Uganda in March and Anita will be presenting her research (co-authored with the Director of the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre), "Nursing Policy Development in Post-Conflict Iraq: Bridging the Gap," at the International Council of Nurses 2025 Congress in Helsinki, Finland in June!

We can't wait!

Thank you again for being with us in this vital work of supporting nurses. We are eager to keep building on these wonderful impacts in the coming year. We wish you every blessing as you enjoy this holiday season!