A group of 17 volunteers from UND’s College of Nursing join Jon Okstad of The God’s Child Project in Guatemala. Photo submitted.

This past spring break, UND’s College of Nursing brought a group of volunteers to Guatemala to team up and take part in the God’s Child Project.

The team consisted of three nursing faculty members, one family nurse practitioner and her mother, eleven undergraduate nursing students, one social work student and one communication/international relations student.

Over the course of eight days, the team spent time serving in a variety of capacities and had the opportunity to participate in cultural and recreational activities that Guatemala had to offer.

The God’s Child Project was founded in Bismarck in 1991 and features 12 programs spread throughout five different countries on a mission to “break the chains of poverty through education and formation.”

GCP works within some of the world’s poorest nations to develop and administer health, education, family foster care, community development and human rights protection systems.

After working with GCP in Guatemala during her own time in college, Clinical Instructor Joni Tweeten was hooked. Following her graduation, Tweeten spent two years in Guatemala as a long-term volunteer. With that experience under her belt, she couldn’t wait to share it with her students and has spent each semester since then presenting to her public health nursing students about her time abroad.

This past summer, Tweeten reached out to Christus Rex Campus Minister Kathy Fick. The two worked together for months to coordinate the spring break excursion through the ministry. —

Due to a high level of student interest, the capacity of the team had to be expanded, and additional faculty members came on board as extra chaperones and volunteers.

UND nursing students Samantha Schultz, Lindsey Becker and Melanie Sopp were all immediately intrigued by Tweeten’s Guatemala presentations in their classes and were eager to sign up for the trip as soon as they could.

“I wanted the experience of actually seeing what it was like first hand rather than just through the news and through television,” Becker said.

During their week-long stay in Guatemala, the students were able to see multiple facets of GCP’s work.

Notable experiences were Casa Jackson — the program’s malnutrition recovery center — and the opportunity to shadow GCP social workers on several eye-opening home visits.

“It was a whole different area of nursing,” Sopp said. “It was amazing to see a new perspective, not just on culture, but the rural experience.”

According to Sopp, GCP only has three social workers in Guatemala, and each worker was lucky to see their assigned families once a month to keep up with their welfare.

“We saw the dirt floors, the sugar cane walls; basically anything you can get to put over your head for a roof,” Sopp said, noting that the impoverished conditions didn’t stop the locals from displaying anything but a positive attitude. “It was amazing to see how happy the people were, it was so contagious.”

The team experienced more of this when it participated in local vegetable and clothing drives — giving supplies to beaming faces.

Schultz, Becker and Sopp all credit their interactions with the locals as some of their favorite parts of the trip. Though there was a prevalent language barrier, the students got to work with assigned translators to effectively communicate with the Guatemalans, in addition to communicating through their own hand gestures and broken Spanish.

The time in Guatemala wasn’t strictly volunteer work for the UND group. Many of the days began with an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. workday and were finished out by sightseeing and experiencing the local culture, including a mile-long zipline ride.

The students reported the nursing program is currently under renovation, and Tweeten is working on funding to build a curriculum that includes a yearly Guatemala-focused class.

The trip in March served as a test run that will hopefully become an annual event for not just nursing students, but those in other disciplines who show interest as well.

“For me, this would be another dream come true,” Tweeten said. “I honestly believe it would open many opportunities for our students and UND.”

According to her students, Tweeten’s ideal class would be born from this trip and would include a curriculum of global health, Guatemala as a country and a little Spanish language instruction thrown in to ease students over the language barrier.

“(Tweeten) is so passionate about it,” Schultz said. “It’s been her dream since she went there originally.”

Schultz, Becker and Sopp agreed their experience was nothing short of life-changing and hope to continue their global education as they pursue their nursing degrees.

“I would go back yesterday if I could,” Sopp said.

Serianna Henkel is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].