Roscommon student appealing for donations to help make a difference in Zambia

Dublin to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Doha, Doha to Lusaka. This 24-hour trip for a charity initiative in Africa is one Ballinameen native Nicole Nolan is willing to take at only nineteen years of age.

Nicole is a second year general nursing student at the University of Galway.

“I always really wanted to do nursing. Since I was about 13 or 14, I always really wanted to be a nurse,” she explained.

As Nicole neared the end of her first year of college, she was informed about an option to apply to travel to Africa.

“I was kind of on the fence about it because, you know, obviously it’s a bit scary, and I was like, oh, am I ready to do it?” But, I just thought it was something I always wanted to do, so I thought, why not? I may as well go for it, and I went for it, and I ended up getting the place to go out to Africa,” she explained.

Over the Christmas holidays before the start of semester two, Nicole was selected from a lottery.

“When I actually got it, I was like, oh my God... this is crazy. I was like, I’m actually going!”

To sweeten the deal, Nicole found out her best friend and roommate Emma Killeen from Laois would be heading out by her side.

“I was so happy then that the two of us were going. I definitely have to go now.”

Both ladies will be heading out to Lusaka the capital of Zambia, to volunteer with the Charity i4life.

Nicole acknowledges this will be an amazing experience but a costly one.

Like many other volunteers she has set up a Go Fund Me page to cover costs.

“It’s about €1,500 in total for flights. And then we also have to get travel insurance and pay fees to the charity. We have to get a couple of travel injections as well.

“They’ve recommended to wear hiking boots to work every day just because of all the insects and everything.” Nicole’s fundraising efforts have already been a great success after reaching the halfway mark of her fundraising target after just two months.

“I think I had something like €700 in the first like 24 hours. I am really so grateful for everyone who donated.

“I think I got a much bigger response than I was ever expecting,” she said.

Nicole’s GoFundMe is currently at more than €1,900 with an end goal of €3,000.

The charity she will be volunteering with is an Irish based non-profit organisation.

Founded in 2009, i4Life focuses on working among the marginalised communities in Lusaka.

It delivers healthcare to the people in the Linda Compound, a township that is home to approximately 80,000 people.

Ten times the size of Ireland, Zambia has a population close to 12 million.

From a healthcare perspective, 1 in 200 women will die during childbirth and 18% of children will die before five years of age in Zambia.

The average age of death is 42.

A model of mutual sharing of knowledge and mentorship between health professionals in Ireland and Zambia has been devloped. This facilitates bi-lateral learning and a deeper understanding of the challenges that marginalised communities endure.

Nicole will be working at a mother and baby clinic for a month from June 13th.

“It’s a safe space that mothers and babies can come to.

“We will do house visits as well where we help new mothers to get back on their feet or children who are suffering malnutrition, try and give them the aid to get them back up and back on their feet.”

Ahead of heading out, Nicole and her colleagues have been attending training and information classes, getting accustomed with what to expect - 11.6% of people have HIV in Zambia, compared to 0.6% in Ireland.

“I think it’s so sad to see that people don’t have access to just basic healthcare facilities.

“And I even though I’m just a student, I would love to be able to offer my skills to someone who really needs it, that’s definitely my main motivation,” she said.

With less than three months to go, Nicole is hopeful of hitting her target.

“I really just want to emphasise that I’m so grateful to anyone who is willing to donate. It is definitely going to a good cause,” concluded Nicole.

Those wishing to donate can do so at https://gofund.me/e41ea0143.