Hello everyone! I truly appreciate you taking a moment to read my story. Ever since I was a little girl, I looked up to both my grandma and aunt who worked as Registered Nurses and I decided I wanted to be just like them when I grew up. After coming to know Jesus and understanding His greatest act of service, I began to see nursing as an opportunity to reflect the selfless service Jesus’ life was marked by. In my earlier college years, I encountered many people who had or were planning to go overseas or travel somewhere in the United States as missionaries and some even as missionary nurses/doctors. The desire to become a missionary nurse hasn’t left my heart since, and I believe it would be a challenging but rewarding career. Traveling to encounter communities with little or no access to medical accommodations and getting to share the Good News of Jesus Christ is a dream that has continued to push me through nursing school. Fast forward a couple of years later, God led me to Montana State University in Bozeman, MT where I would begin my pursuit of my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I am now approaching my senior year at MSU this fall with plans to graduate in May of 2024 with my BSN. This fall MSU is taking a group of 23 students to villages in the Ipalamwa region (situated in the highlands of south-central Tanzania). After encouragement from family and friends and a financial blessing from a dear church family, God made it abundantly clear that He opened the door for me to be a part of this adventure. We will be going with an international non-profit organization called Global Volunteers. The specific section of Global Volunteers that we will be volunteering under is called Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP). RCP’s main focus is preventing stunting by investing in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. Stunting is “a straightforward metric…defined as height more than two standard deviations below the norm. Simply put, stunting is being too short for one’s age” (https://globalvolunteers.org/tanzania/rcp-program/#toggle-id-5). While this may seem insignificant to one’s life, it is much more serious than being short. There are devastating consequences. Some of these consequences include decreased cognitive ability, decreased motor development, decreased language development, increased mortality/morbidity, increased school failure, decreased learning capacity/school performance, decreased reproductive health, and increased intergenerational poverty. While these consequences are heavy they don’t have to be true for everyone because stunting is preventable. Adequate food, good nutrition, and effective protection from disease all work to prevent stunting. But the prevention has to begin with educating parents about healthy pregnancies, nutritious foods, and disease prevention. The global trend of stunting is overall decreasing however, the trend in Africa is increasing. In rural Tanzania (where we will be volunteering) it’s estimated that nearly 50% of all children are stunted. This statistic alone shows how in need these villages are of dedicated and intentional volunteers. Our goal, as short-term volunteers, is to work towards eradicating hunger, enhancing cognition, and improving health. We will work to accomplish these three goals by promoting the use of earth box gardens that produce fruit and vegetables, building chicken coops, conducting parent workshops, promoting breastfeeding, assisting at the Ipalamwa General Clinic, teaching about prenatal and postnatal care, offering preventive health education, demonstrating proper teeth brushing and oral care, accompanying staff on home visits, caring for children at preschools, and whatever else we are called to do while we are volunteering. Volunteering in Tanzania with this specific group is a lifetime opportunity but as expected, it is not possible without financial support. My ask of you is this, would you prayerfully consider financially supporting me on my journey to Tanzania? More than anything, I would love your support in prayer over our trip to Tanzania (specifically safety & protection, for God to use us to bring light to the community and to provide effective nursing care) and for confident trust in God that He will provide. I appreciate all of you who took the time to read my story and hear what God is doing in my life. If any of you have questions/comments or simply just want to talk about my trip I would love to hear from you! With love, Karla :) Link to the video explaining our trip: Tanzania RCP Program Link to RCP webpage: Global Volunteers - Tanzania
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