For those who attended and donated to the Global Gala

Hello everyone, Julia Here!

Myself, Adia, Shelly and Sam were the four students involved in planning, organizing, and implementing the 2017 Global Gala that happened this past November. I am happy to say that we four are now all currently in Zambia completing the last week of our final nursing practicum. Reflecting back to the beginning of the planning phases of the Global Gala, I remember feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of hard work and organizing that was ahead of us. Thankfully, with over six months of hard work, hundreds of emails, many hours canvassing the community for donations, and a lot of time spent stressing about selling tickets, we managed to throw a very successful Global Gala Event that raised over $20,000 for healthcare initiatives in Zambia and Ghana. In the end, the Global Gala was a very enjoyable night that I was so grateful to be a part of!

As I am sitting here, currently in Mongu under the cabana beside our house, I thought what a great idea to share with all of you exactly where all of this money raised went in Zambia. For all of those who attended, donated money, or donated services to the 2017 Global Gala, I want you to know that your efforts and generosity have been put to great use here. One of the most rewarding aspects about this trip for me is seeing first-hand where exactly all of the profits from the Global Gala go and knowing that all of our hard work, and all of your generosity, has paid off.

This week, we presented a Zambian nursing student named Ribathu Musonda with a $1500 scholarship towards finishing his nursing school studies. This student was identified by his instructors as the top achiever of his class, but also as someone in financial need. As we students surprised him by presenting him with this scholarship, along with a stethoscope and some UBC swag, you could see how incredibly grateful he was by the genuine smile on his face (photo below). Many of us students had the pleasure of working with Ribathu on the wards during our time in Mongu, and we are all in agreeance that he will make a very excellent nurse, and that he is very deserving of this scholarship money. This experience made us all a little teary-eyed and was definitely a huge feel-good moment for us. Just to put this into perspective, $1500 will pay for over a year of his nursing school studies (nursing school in Mongu is 3 years long), so everyone who donated in some shape or form to the Global Gala, you just helped to pay for over a third of a very deserving student’s education. This feel good moment should definitely be shared with all of you as well.   

The money raised from the Global Gala also helped to support many of the nursing initiatives that we Canadian nursing students put together while here in Mongu. Some of us students were involved with putting together and launching a first aid course to teach the community healthcare staff at the Zambia Project the basics of CPR, wound care, snake bite care, choking care, etc. Other students were involved with the making and running of an antenatal training course, in order to teach community health workers about the importance of antenatal care for pregnant mums, and complications to look out for. The money from the Global Gala also played a part in facilitating some of the excursions to various schools to provide education and feminine hygiene kit to adolescent girls, and this was carried out by the Canadian nursing students involved with Days for Girls! Money from the Global Gala was used for all of the above teaching initiatives, and not only helped us to present important information to people in need of learning but also helped provide us with valuable teaching experience that will serve us in our future nursing careers. We thank you for this.

The money raised at the Global Gala also went to purchasing and bringing various medical supplies, such as blood pressure cuffs, adult and pediatric stethoscopes, neonatal and adult ambu-bags, teaching supplies, various nursing textbooks, new mom-baby kits, pulse oximeters, tape, gauze, etc. All of these supplies were strategically given by our instructors to hospital wards and clinics that had the greatest need for them. The money also helped us bring tons of fabric from Canada here, so that we could pay local seamstresses in Mongu to sew them into much-needed linens and nursing gowns for Lewanika General Hospital (see pictures below).

The Global Gala team, Canadian nursing students, and instructors would like to thank all of you, from the bottom of our hearts, for making all of these donations possible. This is just a rough description for you of where this money went in Zambia, but remember that half of the money also went to Ghana as well! We have now seen first-hand the great need for resources and funds that this community has, and we could not have supported them in this way without everyone who attended and donated to the Global Gala. Thank you so much!

- Julia and the Global Gala Team