In October 1998 the most deadly storm to hit the Americas in two centuries, Hurricane Mitch, devastated much of Honduras. The owner and employees of Nightingale Nursing in Missoula, Montana, read about the disaster and went into action-they immediately organized and sent four medical and rebuilding brigades over the course of the next four months. In those first few trips, we began to form relationships with Honduran organizations, relationships that have become partnerships that turn our money and labor into efficient clinics and productive health-improvement projects.

In the world of international aid, we are a small organization. We have just three part-time employees, so the great bulk of our work is done by our volunteers and Honduran partners. This means your donation, because it is teamed with thousands of volunteer hours and the facilities, talents, and services of our Honduran partners, goes a long way.

We partner with Save the Children, Honduras, with the regional public hospitals in San Lorenzo and La Esperanza, with the La Esperanza Lions Club, and with various government agencies in Honduras. Our partners drive us, house us, feed us, fill out our paperwork, and do follow-up care for our patients when we are gone.

• They also select and educate our scholarship nursing students.
• We buy the chimneys, and Save the Children teaches people how to build more efficient cook stoves to reduce smoke in the home.
• We buy the irrigation supplies and seeds, they teach farmers how to take care of their livestock, grow the seeds, and sell their harvest. 
• We help buy the food, they train mothers and fathers in childhood development and nutrition.
• We buy the fluoride and the toothbrushes, they give them to school children and teach dental hygiene.
• We identify the more seriously ill patients in our rural clinics: they help those patients get further treatment.