Securing the Future

Sherri, Jeannette, Ken, and Jac

HealthEd Connect is celebrating the receipt of an empowering Trust gift while paying tribute to the energetic and far-sighted woman who arranged for this generous gift: Joan Scribner.  Joan loved nursing and spent her life working toward the future by enabling the dreams of young people who wanted to pursue a nursing career.

In the 70s she helped establish a Professional Nurses Scholarship Endowment that, since then, has literally changed the lives of dozens of young people.  The Endowment, now managed by HealthEd Connect, has provided a total of $48,650 in awards to 24 students in 8 countries including India, Nepal, Zambia, Malawi, Philippines, Honduras, Nicaragua and the U.S.A.

This month, Joan's son Ken Scribner, and his wife, Jeannette, presented a check from Joan's Trust as one of her final wishes.  We salute Joan's lasting legacy to make the world healthier by empowering nurses of tomorrow.

International Day of Girl Child

Here's to the strong girls every where, who courageously walk hand in hand in the role assigned them by society while dreaming BIG dreams for tomorrow.  The world is making slow but steady headway on leveling the playing field for girls.  But there's still a long way to go.  

You Go Girls!!

When girls are educated, empowered, healthy and free from violence and discrimination, their communities are more prosperous and stable. Investing in gender equality is not just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing to do. But girls around the world still face lifelong gender-based inequalities that begin in childhood.                                                           -Save the Children

Immune-Amnesia

Jane holding baby while clinic worker gives immunization

HealthEd Connect actively supports the health workers in Malawi, Zambia, and DRC who are diligently working to encourage moms to have their babies immunized.  They've made great strides in overcoming fears and superstitions and in the last 6 months alone worked with the government clinics to immunize 11011 babies.  Great job!!

While the developing world is making great strides, the U.S. seems to be going backwards. 

An article by Nurith Aizenma in the Sept. 5 issue of Goats and Soda had the following sobering report:

There's mounting evidence that when a person is infected with measles, the virus also wipes out the immune system's memory of how to fight off all sorts of other life-threatening infections – ranging from gastro-intestinal bugs that cause diarrhea to respiratory viruses that trigger pneumonia.

"All of the sudden you end up having not just more outbreaks of measles, but you might have more outbreaks of rubella or flu or any number of other diseases," says Dr. Michael Mina, a Harvard professor who has authored some of the most ground-breaking research into this so-called "immune-amnesia" effect from measles.

Poverty and Water

Washing dishes in stagnant water

One of our health workers in Luapula, Zambia, recently sent this picture of a client she was visiting who has been ill.  When she arrived at the visit, she found the mother, knee deep in a stagnant pool of water, washing her dishes in the cloudy water. It is no mystery why people constantly fight illnesses caused by unsafe water. 

According to The Water Project, nearly one billion people do not have access to clean, safe water.  If you do the numbers, that means about 1 in 8 people in our world are affected.  For women, this is particularly daunting as they try to safeguard the health of their family and carry out the duties of everyday living.

This is a problem that cannot be solved over night but is, without question, solvable!!  We just need to work together address the problem one community at a time.