Niagara, ON: 2010 is the International Year of the Nurse, and Niagara Health System (NHS) nurses are stepping up to help support and fund the building of a community health clinic in Kenya, Africa.
Details about the international initiative were announced at the annual NHS Nursing Week dinner held last night in Niagara Falls.
“Across the globe, nurses are being asked to act as catalysts to improve health,” says Chief Nursing Executive Sue Matthews. “We are blessed in Canada to enjoy a standard of care and living which is among the best in the world. Our nurses wanted to do something for others in our global community that could profoundly improve their health and well being.”
Partnering with international child rights and relief agency Free the Children, NHS nurses will fundraise over the next year to send a contingent of youth from Niagara to a Kenyan village to help build the facility.
Free The Children is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education and development programs, with more than one million youth involved in innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. “As nurses, this effort allows us to improve health in a developing nation and at the same time provide leadership and leadership opportunities to Niagara youth,” says Sue.
Organizers of the effort hope to raise approximately $20,000, enough funds to send five to six young people to Kenya.
“I congratulate and commend our nurses for taking on and supporting this important initiative,” says NHS President and CEO Debbie Sevenpifer.
For more information, contact:
Caroline Bourque Wiley
Public Affairs Consultant
905-378-4647, ext. 43113
cwiley@niagarahealth.on.ca
