Oklahoma's Own: ORU Nursing, Education Students Bring Help To Haiti

More than a dozen ORU students and faculty members will be spending the weekend getting ready for a missions trip. The nursing and education students will spend spring break at an orphanage in Haiti.

Oklahoma's Own will be helping a country in need.

Nursing and education students at ORU are putting the finishing touches on their plans for spring break. They won't be relaxing in the sun, instead their bags will be packed with more than 400 pounds of medical and educational supplies.

"I'm so excited. This is my first trip with ORU, but this is my seventh mission trip," said Mariah Vance, a junior nursing student at ORU.

The students are all from ORU's School of Nursing and College of Education. They're spending spring break at an orphanage in Haiti, helping tend to 140 kids in a building that was designed for half that.

"Many are orphans due to the earthquake, If they have any kind of special needs their parents just leave them in the hospital out of desperation and inability to take care of them," said Debi Lammert, R.N. and ORU School of Nursing faculty member.

Other faculty members and students from ORU have gone on mission trips in the past. But this spring break marks the first time that nursing and education students will go together on their own mission trip.

The nursing students will help care for the children and work with the medical team at the orphanage.

The education students will assess the children for learning deficiencies or delays in social development.

"They've been through an earthquake; a lot of them have seen traumatic things," said junior Elaine Bimba. "So just offering hope and giving care, all in one. Just being able to offer that all together in one full package is what I am looking forward to do."

The faculty says trips like this help the students put their education to work in a real-world environment and teach them about a country that's still struggling.

"So you have to learn how to be adaptable, how to be flexible, how to take care of people the best you can in a setting and a culture that's not anything like ours," Lammert said.

The group will leave first thing Monday morning and return home the following Sunday.