Eleven senior nursing students along with Visiting Asst. Prof. Valerie King and Brianna’s mother, Maura Sullivan Norton, a UMass nursing alumna, will travel to Ghana, West Africa, in January.  Their mission will be to provide nursing care in the local hospital, clinic, orphanage and school for disabled children.

"These students are very much concerned with health from a global perspective but also realize that this experience will give them a life experience that will enhance their professional growth as a nurse here in the United States,” says King, the group’s faculty adviser. 

“I see more ambition, drive, determination and energy from these students than I have ever seen in any professional group I have worked with.  I look forward to watching their continued growth and taking part in an adventure that will be life enriching for all of us."

In the village of Kpando, the group will spend more than 40 hours a week providing nursing care for those in need. They learned that residents of the region come by the hundreds when they hear American nurses are providing care.

“I’m excited to take the nursing skills I learned here at UMass Lowell half way around the world to serve the people of Kpando,” says Norton. 

The group also learned that common conditions like asthma can prove deadly in Ghana because of a lack of access to treatments such as medication and inhalers. Residents of the region face other serious risks, from holes in mosquito netting that is supposed to protect them from malaria to clinics that reuse needles, further fueling the AIDS crisis.

Students will bring their own equipment, including surgical gloves and needles, as well as other items, such as iron-enriched baby formula. To fund their mission, the group has raised more than $10,000 so far, which does not include the more than $3,000 each student will pay to make the trip.

Nursing Students Without Borders is accepting monetary donations to buy first aid supplies, vitamins, nutritional supplements and clothing.  Donations can be sent to Nursing Students Without Borders, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 3 Solomont Way, Lowell, MA 01854 or click here to give online.