100 teens donate to Canadian Nurses for Africa

First mission to Kenya since Covid-19 gets a boost

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Kamel Kawar and Lilli Karabela, both of King's Christian Collegiate, Chloe McDonald, of Holy Trinity, and Taleen Kaafarini, of King's Christian Collegiate present a cheque to Canadian Nurses for Africa President Dr. Patricia Harbman of Oakville.

100 Teens Who Care Oakville is an offshoot of 100 Women Who Care Oakville. They selected Canadian Nurses for Africa for the $950 donation after looking at a number of local charities.

"CNFA really spoke to me because it goes out and works hands on to help people, putting nurses on the ground in remote rural Kenya, where health care is hard to access," said Taleen, who was charged with making the final decision. 

The 100 Teens concept is 100 teens x $10 can create a meaningful $1,000 that can be donated.

The money from 100 Teens (which includes matching funds from Travelers Insurance) will be used to fund the tuition for a Kenyan to train as a nurse (costing $600), as well as to provide shoes for children, one of the best preventative measures against jiggers, a pernicious local sand flea that burrows under the skin and produces a condition that looks like leprosy. The rest will go to toys for kids and reading glasses. This kind of donation can make a real difference to CNFA and to Kenya.

In May, Canadian Nurses for Africa will leave for their first mission to Kenya since Covid.

Twelve nurses, including President Patti Harbman of Oakville, will spend two weeks using Kakamega as a base. Kakamega is an eleven-hour bumpy bus ride from Nairobi, but it has a basic peeling-paint hotel with running water and electricity.

From there, every morning for two weeks, the nurses will head out to a different village, where no such modern conveniences will be available. They set up in a church or school, where already patients will be lined up awaiting the chance to deal with ailments, many long-neglected. The nurses will see about 1,000 patients every day.

Canadian Nurses for Africa was founded in Burlington by Gail Wolters in 2007. Nurses come from across Canada to participate with many from the Burlington Oakville area. Nurses take vacation time from their jobs in Canada and pay for their own transportation to Kenya, as well as accommodation when they are there.

The motivation is really being able to do hands-on nursing and help people in need with anything from malaria to a broken bone that hasn't been set. They fundraise to cover the costs of the medications they take with them and buy in Kenya, as well as to finance trips to hospital for patients they diagnose but cannot help properly in the rural villages.

This year, the Rotary Club of Oakville-Trafalgar donated the funds for medication costs. Medications taken from Canada were facilitated by Health Partners International Canada Oakville office, the only charity licensed by Health Canada to handle medicines donated by pharmaceutical companies.

Patti Harbman, CNFA's President, is a MScN, APN, NP graduate of McMaster University and a PhD from the University of Toronto, and a long-time Oakville resident. She has held a number of leadership roles in hospital settings and on retirement volunteered with CNFA.

"It was a very fulfilling experience," she says, "not least because of the personal and professional growth it offers the nurses. We all love the hands on primary nursing care and the direct ability to help when care is otherwise unavailable."

"When Gail, who built the organization from the ground up, literally doing everything herself, felt it was time to step away, I saw an opportunity to put my training and experience into action and really make a difference in the lives of the people we serve in Kenya."

Unable to travel to Kenya, CNFA continued to support villagers with food parcels when getting groceries became a challenge. They also address the jiggers problem, which especially attacks children who walk barefoot both outside and on the dirt floors of their homes. As damaging and widespread as it is, with training it is easily treated.

For the last seven years CNFA has trained a worker to continue treatments throughout the year. Providing children with shoes is the best method of prevention, and this donation from 100 Teens will make a real difference. It was a major part of the appeal to the young people in 100 Teens that every penny of their donation would go directly to benefit rural Kenyans accessing healthcare, because nurses cover their own costs. 

They were delighted to find out they could select where the money would go and could even help fund tuition for a Kenyan nurse in training.

As Covid-19 continued, CNFA also used the time to systematize its operations and develop a strategy to scale up to be able to have an even greater impact. In conjunction with this year's trip, they are developing a programme to assist with maternal childcare education for local community health workers, with the help of graduate students doing a research project for their doctoral dissertations.

Maternal and infant mortality rates are high in Kenya, especially in remote areas. They are also examining the possibility of expanding operations to other African countries, with initial enquiries in Zimbabwe.

All of this will of course take money. Canadian Nurses for Africa receives donations from a number of individuals and foundations and is seeking corporate donors as well. To help Canadian Nurses for Africa, please visit their website. To learn more about 100 Teens Who Care Oakville, click here.