A group of nursing students at a Canadian university are reaching out to partner with Highlands Hope of Tanzania to support a deserving nursing student in Njombe, Tanzania.

The student is Flora Haule, a young woman in her final year at Ilembula School of Nursing in Njombe. She will be graduating in the spring of 2008. She was chosen to receive financial support by Highlands Hope of Tanzaia because of her good academic record, her personal need and her intenton to practice in a rural setting when she completes her training.

Flora is hoping to work at the Ikonda Hospital - one of the hospitals in the Highlands Hope of Tanzania network.

The bursary from the students at Saint Francis Xavier and Highlands Hope will allow Flora to move forward with her training and her professional goals. Otherwise she would have had to stop her education, at least temporarily.

Tracey MacDonald from the Saint Fraincis Xavier University Nursing Society writes with a bit of background about their group:

We are located in rural, Northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. We are a student run organization that represents and serves Nursing students here at our university. Our mission is to foster, support and serve the nursing community at Saint Francis Xavier as a team, through communication, health promotion, education and social event.

We are involved in many campus and community wide activities. We are made up of multiple committees such as health promotion committee, curriculum committee, social committees, and a fundraising committee. We operate a student run nursing library, and offer tutoring services once a week.

Every year we donate to a local, national and international charity or organization. I had the pleasure of hearing Madeline Buck (from McGill Nurses for Highlands Hope) speak about the Highland Hope nurses at the Canadian Nursing Students Association last January in Toronto and thought it was an amazing opportunity for Canadian nursing students to reach out an connect with nursing students in Tanzania. As nursing students we understand the challenges that being a student creates in people's lives not only academically but financially as well.

We are so pleased that we could offer some assistance to a fellow nursing student, as this is really core to what we are trying to accomplish
with our society, be it here on our own campus or across the miles.

All the best,
Tracey MacDonald
Saint Francis Xavier University Nursing Society