CURE Kenya Nurses Give Back
As if they don’t already give enough, our lovely nurses spent the better part of Friday of Nurses Week giving back to the community around CURE Kenya. Nurses’ Week is a time to celebrate and recognise the work done by nurses all over the world. While we did take time to celebrate the nurses and make them feel appreciated, our nurses at CURE Kenya decided to also visit a few schools around the hospital and do community service.
Before we show you exactly what our nurses were up to, allow us to take you to a joint morning devotion session that was led by our awesome nurses. Praise and worship were led by Paul, and we had a joyful time dancing and praising God. Nancy shared the word of God from our devotion books, Reaching Towards The Goal. All the nurses in the chapel that morning made their way to the front carrying a lit candle. In unison, they recited the nurses’ pledge. A few moments later, they cut cake and shared it with everyone in chapel that morning.
Nurse Paul leading praise and worship. 
Dancing and praising God. 
Nurse Nancy sharing the word of God. 
Reciting the nurses pledge.
Our nurses first stopped at a local primary school. They engaged the upper primary pupils (Class 6-8) in talks, teaching them how to properly take care of their teeth by regularly brushing, how to take care of their bones by maintaining the right sitting posture while in class, and how to respond and get help in case someone got injured while they were playing. The pupils were also reminded how to be hygienic at all times to avoid infections and diseases.
A group photo of CURE Kenya nurses and co-workers, outside one of the schools. 
Nurse James demonstrating to the pupils how to properly brush their teeth. 
Training on proper sitting posture.
Next, they visited another school and did the same teachings. This time around they interacted with lower primary pupils who they taught how to properly wash their hands and maintain good sitting posture. The management at the third school our nurses visited decided that it was important for most of the pupils to hear what we had for them. Since we got there after class time, it was easy to get everyone together to talk to them.
Hand washing training. 
Nurse Anne speaking to primary school students.
Nursing is not only about knowing how to take vital signs or administer the right medicine. It is about passion, devotion, enthusiasm, perseverance, and learning to take care of the environment to ensure everyone stays in perfect health. Therefore, the last thing our nurses were able to do was to collect garbage around the Kijabe area. Some of the people in the community noticed what they were doing and joined them so they cleaned together. At the end of the day, everyone who participated was really tired, but they all had smiles on their faces because deep down in their hearts, they knew they had done something to better the community. They had given back!
Footnotes: Words and photos by Elvis Lemaiyan, CURE Kenya Storyteller.
