Mission work aids impoverished family

In August and December 2011, undergraduate and graduate College of Nursing students traveled to Uganda with the Palmetto Medical Initiative (PMI) to provide healthcare to those in need. Those students included Accelerated BSN students Lisa Carraher, Sarah Didow, Kristen Elmore, Margaret (Sosnowski) Lawrence, Lindsey Palmer, Anne Powell, Jenelle Quenneville, Thomas Rudisill, Margaret Skeele, and Jessee Wagner. Graduate students included DNP students Ashleigh Benda, Elizabeth Devereaux, Hannah French, J’Vonne Hunter, and MSN student Reames Rinehart. Jenelle Quenneville shares her experience below:

A young mother came into the clinic with her five children for treatment. There was a 10-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy, and a 2-year-old girl. The 4-year-old boy was her nephew whom she had adopted four weeks prior because her sister had passed away. All of the children had worms, Tinea capitis, and various infections that needed treatment. The oldest child was unable to walk due to what appeared to be nerve damage that resulted from an exacerbation of malaria years prior. This family was extremely impoverished; you could see the pain in their faces from hunger, sickness, and loss. The mother expressed exhaustion from working in the fields and caring for five children on her own.

I share this experience because I was honored to be able to provide care for this family. The child that was carried into the clinic left with new shoes, walking canes, and muscle strengthening exercises. The other children were provided with individually bagged medications that included specific written instructions for the mom. We spent over an hour with this family and provided shoes for three of them. I shared my lunch, power bar, and stickers (almost everything I had with me that day). I left grateful that we were able to provide for this family and give hope to this mother and her children.

- Jenelle Quenneville, Accelerated BSN student