At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of faculty, students, alumni and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality health care to underserved and rural populations.
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) student Francis Aho, in CNEP Class 164, isn’t waiting until graduation to make a difference in the world. In fact, she has been serving women in Maasai Mara, Kenya for the past eight years.
“We operate what we call a ‘Birth Center’ – providing MCH services to the locals, 15-25 deliveries a month,” said Francis.
Francis works primarily with women of the Maasai tribe, an underserved group that is a long-standing symbol of Kenyan culture. For this semi-nomadic people living in the bush of Africa, quality healthcare is hard to come by. This is why the work Francis is doing is so important.
According to Francis, their goal is “to improve MCH services and follow up for Maasai mamas.”
While Francis originally worked as a nurse at the clinic, she has recently become the director and is working hard to improve maternal and child health services for the women they assist. Even while running this center that sees 15-25 births per month (not to mention postnatal follow-ups), Francis still manages to keep up with her nurse-midwifery coursework for FNU.
Francis keeps the end goal in mind at all times: to better serve the community where she lives.
“It is my hope that perhaps one more life can be saved through gaining specialized education,” said Francis.
Francis stated that one thing she loves most about FNU is its “mission to service underprivileged communities.” She also is grateful for the unique distance education model FNU offers to students.
“FNU has made it possible for me to complete my didactic work overseas and been flexible with my future clinical course plans,” Francis said.
Like so many other FNU students and alumni, Aho has a heart to care for underserved populations by utilizing her nursing skills.
Thank you, Francis, for crossing oceans to bring safe healthcare to those who need it most. We are proud to have you as a representative of the heart and values of the FNU community!
