Nursing Students Without Borders Papers

The Nursing Students Without Borders (NSWB) was established in 1999 by students to provide global community health care to under-served communities. The mission of the NSWB organization is to promote health empowerment through education, building networks to access health care resources and distributing donated materials to third world communities while expanding the perspectives and experiences of nursing students. NSWB began its work in San Sebastián, El Salvador in March 2000, July 2000 and January, 2001 in a project called the El Salvador Initiative. On January 13th 2001 a massive earthquake shook El Salvador while eight members of the NSWB team were working there. None of the members were injured; however, the experience redefined many of the short-term goals for the project. The new goals for the next mission became prevention of disease, reconstruction of homes, and finding safe water sources.

The Migrant Health Initiative is the local branch of the NSWB which provides nursing students the opportunity to provide health care to migrant farmers and their families living in the Albemarle regional area. In 2001 the second annual MHI outreach season formed outreach teams with other health care professionals and made bi-monthly visits to three area migrant camps July through October of that year.

In the winter of 2001 a public health clinic in the town of Kysmolovsky, one hour north of St. Petersburg, invited NSWB to assist the local health care providers and village residents in conducting a needs assessment of the health care needs of their community in a project called, The Russia Initiative. A second trip to the community was made in the winter of 2002.

In August of 2004, NSWB traveled to South Africa. They worked with local clinics, provided health education on various topics and delivered needed supplies in The South Africa Initiative to a community in Thohoyandou, Limpopo (Northern) Province.