Power Through Partnership: Our Collaboration With Oda Foundation
One of the key issues that has been raised through our work in the last year has been the difficulties surrounding employment of nurses and midwives. Following the successful qualification of the nurses we support, their next challenge is to find employment in rural hospitals or health posts where the communities are desperate for their help. Unfortunately, with a lack of government posts available in these underfunded areas, this is not always a straightforward task for them.
We want to change this and ensure that the most remote communities receive the nursing support they need, so we have partnered with the incredible organization Oda Foundation to collaborate on a joint project to support the onward employment of our nurses and related professionals.
DFN have funded our fantastic qualified nurse Yuna (above,right), to serve for a year at Oda Foundation’s hospital and birthing centre, located in remote Kalikot. Yuna was struggling to find posts to apply for in remote areas following her study at Patan Academy. Now, having started her role last month, she is seeing patients at Oda’s busy clinic, as well as showing interest in contributing to research there. Other DFN nurses are now being considered, who can help to further our joint aims of improving provision in this region.
Exciting planning is also in place to develop a brand new joint study and employment scholarship, which will involve us collaboratively identifying individuals from marginalized groups within the region, and giving them the opportunity to apply for scholarships that include funding for their nursing, midwifery or public health education, as well as a two-year employment contract. This will have an impact on not only the life of the individual student, but also their whole community.