From left, Beth Lohse, Suzanne Green, Janet James MSN '02 and Judy Mallory share some smiles with the children of Honduras.
Four representatives of Western’s nursing program embarked on a 12-day service-learning trip earlier this year to help provide medical care for impoverished residents of rural Honduras. Assistant professor Janet James MSN ’02 organized the trip and led the group, which also included faculty member Judy Mallory and two working nurses enrolled in WCU’s family nurse practitioner program – Suzanne Green and Beth Lohse.
The WCU contingent traveled to the Central American country in affiliation with the nonprofit corporation Shoulder to Shoulder Inc., an Ohio-based organization that began offering health care assistance to rural Hondurans in 1990. After its arrival in Honduras, the WCU group joined volunteers from other universities on an eight-hour bus ride on winding mountain roads to establish primary clinics in three “base camp” villages. From those villages, the group traveled by truck to deliver services to other villages in the surrounding areas. A particular focus on the trip was assessments for malnutrition in the villages, particularly among children, and treatment for vitamin deficiencies, parasites and infections. At night, team members slept in tents under mosquito netting to protect them from malaria and dengue fever.
Green, a registered nurse who works for Accredo Therapeutics, a specialty pharmacy based in Greensboro, reflected upon the trip after the WCU group’s return...
"My most vivid memories of our trip are of the beauty of Honduras contrasted with the poverty of the people, which would be unimaginable to most people in the United States. In spite of this, the people really seemed to be truly happy and content with their simple lives. There was such a feeling of community there that we don’t really feel in our country. Maybe it is the necessity of having to work together to survive in the remotest region of a poor country.
The people were so kind and generous to us, and they really seemed to deeply appreciate everything we did for them. I learned a lot about giving up my accustomed comforts and the amenities of home and working hard for the benefit of a community of people in need. This trip was the most rewarding thing I have ever done."