Highlighting Three Nurses and Celebrating Nurses Week at HopeCore!

In honor of nurses week, it’s a great time to celebrate the profession of nursing and all the great nurses we have working with us at HopeCore. Over the years our nurses have been hard-working, compassionate, good listeners, problem solvers, and educators.

One of our outstanding nurses, Dennis tells his story;

“My name is Dennis Muchemi a nurse by profession, it has been 3 years since I graduated as a Registered Nurse. I come from Chuka Sub-county Tharaka Nithi county in Kenya. I am currently working as a community health nurse at Village HopeCore International⁠.

While I was growing up my grandmother who was my guardian at the time, was admitted to a government hospital. At the time I was in class Three. ⁠

One day it was my turn to visit her and take some food and fruits to her. The situation I found her was very unbearable she could not feed, clean, or even empty her sputum mug. With no one to help her out, I did the needful to ensure her comfort. ⁠

I only realized how traumatizing this was to me after returning home and getting unwell too. I stayed out of school for a whole week. After the whole ordeal, I resolved to take up nursing as my profession to help alleviate the suffering of the patients by ensuring their needs are met. ⁠

 So nursing to me is more of a passion and a calling rather than a career. What I love most about my job is being able to touch someone's life by positively impacting them. Seeing my clients appreciative and satisfied with the kind of services that have rendered to them gives me fulfillment and that is what keeps me going.”

Dennis Muchemi, RN at one of HopeCore's mobile Maternal Child Health Clinics

Irene Mokua

Irene comes from the beautiful hills of Cherangany in Trans-Nzoia County. She has been working as a nurse for the past 6 years with four of these at Village HopeCore International where she is the Public Health Clinical Coordinator. ⁠

What inspired Irene to pursue nursing is an incident that happened when she was in her youthful age. She was very ill and was admitted to ward seven in one of the County Hospitals. Ward seven had critically ill patients and was adjacent to the mortuary. So that in case of any mortality, one could be easily admitted at the morgue.  While she was at the hospital she noticed that the nurses were overwhelmed by the number of patients and at times they were too tired to continue working. Sometimes she would want to have the IV antibiotic drip off but since the nurses were busy with other patients her mother would try to get it off for her to go to the bathroom. ⁠

When she regained her health, her dream of being an air hostess drastically changed to this noble profession. ⁠She decided to focus more on prevention and early treatment to avoid further complications. ⁠She gains satisfaction whenever she makes her patients smile by promoting their health through health education, advocacy, and early treatment. 

Irene Mokua, HopeCore Nurse

Marylucy Chesang⁠

Meet our community nurse Marylucy Chesang who comes from Cheptongei in Elgeiyo Marakwet County. She has been working as a nurse for the last five years with one year at Village HopeCore.⁠

Marylucy decided to take up nursing after she witnessed the suffering of a sickly elderly woman in their community who had been neglected by her family because she was barren.⁠ The inlaws of the woman left her for the dead denying her food and with just a steel bed without a mattress⁠.

Marylucy RN, conducts blood pressure screening at one of the free Sunday clinics

Marylucy could just watch helplessly because she had just completed her secondary education. But she decided to make a difference in the future by joining a nursing school.

These are just three personal stories from our amazing nursing staff at HopeCore. We are incredibly lucky to have such a hard-working and dedicated nursing staff. They are the reason why our mobile clinic and public health programs are so successful. We thank our nurses for their compassion, their leadership, and their dedication to improving the health of our communities!

Happy Nurses Week!

We are so lucky to have such an awesome team of nurses at HopeCore!