GRAND BLANC
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Thursday, March 06, 2008
By Elizabeth Shaweshaw@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6311
GRAND BLANC - Nobody has to tell Nicole Ragnone what it's like to watch your world destroyed.
In August 2005, she and daughter Vivienne, now 4, were among thousands who fled New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The University of Michigan-Flint nursing student, 38, now lives with her parents in Grand Blanc. But she returns to the Big Easy every summer, volunteering at a free medical clinic in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward.
So Ragnone knows full well she doesn't have to go halfway around the world to help people in need.
But she's doing it anyway.
She and nine other UM-Flint nursing students will travel in June with two faculty members to Cambodia, a country still devastated by very unnatural disasters - the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
The students will bring supplies and donate their time at orphanages, schools and village centers in Phnom Penh - immortalized in the Vietnam-era film "The Killing Fields" for the infamous Khmer Rouge torture killings - and Siem Reap, a city with its own French Quarter dating to the French colonial period in the early 1900s.
"We aren't going there to take over anything. We're just more hands to help more people," said Ragnone.
Nursing faculty member Maureen Tippen organized the service trip after spending three weeks in Cambodia last year, seeing firsthand how visible the scars of that war still are.
By Elizabeth Shaweshaw@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6311
GRAND BLANC - Nobody has to tell Nicole Ragnone what it's like to watch your world destroyed.
In August 2005, she and daughter Vivienne, now 4, were among thousands who fled New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The University of Michigan-Flint nursing student, 38, now lives with her parents in Grand Blanc. But she returns to the Big Easy every summer, volunteering at a free medical clinic in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward.
So Ragnone knows full well she doesn't have to go halfway around the world to help people in need.
But she's doing it anyway.
She and nine other UM-Flint nursing students will travel in June with two faculty members to Cambodia, a country still devastated by very unnatural disasters - the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
The students will bring supplies and donate their time at orphanages, schools and village centers in Phnom Penh - immortalized in the Vietnam-era film "The Killing Fields" for the infamous Khmer Rouge torture killings - and Siem Reap, a city with its own French Quarter dating to the French colonial period in the early 1900s.
"We aren't going there to take over anything. We're just more hands to help more people," said Ragnone.
Nursing faculty member Maureen Tippen organized the service trip after spending three weeks in Cambodia last year, seeing firsthand how visible the scars of that war still are.
"The big thing that hits you is how very few older people there are. You see almost no one my age and up," said Tippen, 51. "You quickly learn the reason is the Khmer Rouge and (former Cambodian dictator) Pol Pot's regime killed anyone educated - all the teachers, the doctors and nurses. Unless they fled into the countryside, they were killed."
Outside the tourist centers, the country still is littered with land mines, orphanages and overwhelming poverty.
Tippen plans to take her students to a small clinic where villagers literally live off the pickings of a garbage dump.
"Every day after the trucks dump, the pickers go through all the garbage. They each have their own little thing -- plastic, aluminum, whatever. You see kids 4 and 5 years old filling garbage bags to earn a few cents."
The UM-Flint students will help with basic health care education, teaching children how to brush their teeth or wash their hands. They'll perform other tasks in other locations, too.
Each student must pay $4,339 for the trip, and each is collecting a duffel bag of small health and personal care items for distribution. Donations for either are appreciated, Tippen said.
Tippen selected students for qualities such as flexibility, team skills, enthusiasm and positive attitude.
"The travel is rough, and it can be shocking in a lot of ways. Everybody has their day on these trips when they fall apart. They're tired, hot, hungry, they didn't sleep well. You need some students who are real leaders who can step in and help."
Ragnone's maturity and personal experiences make her one of those, she said.
Ragnone said she just hopes the group will have some impact on the people they meet and that they'll bring back skills and wisdom that will make them better nurses.
"I care about here, there and everywhere," she said. "Katrina really opened my eyes about how necessary it is to look out for our fellow man, how much better things could be if we are working together toward a cause."
***
Outside the tourist centers, the country still is littered with land mines, orphanages and overwhelming poverty.
Tippen plans to take her students to a small clinic where villagers literally live off the pickings of a garbage dump.
"Every day after the trucks dump, the pickers go through all the garbage. They each have their own little thing -- plastic, aluminum, whatever. You see kids 4 and 5 years old filling garbage bags to earn a few cents."
The UM-Flint students will help with basic health care education, teaching children how to brush their teeth or wash their hands. They'll perform other tasks in other locations, too.
Each student must pay $4,339 for the trip, and each is collecting a duffel bag of small health and personal care items for distribution. Donations for either are appreciated, Tippen said.
Tippen selected students for qualities such as flexibility, team skills, enthusiasm and positive attitude.
"The travel is rough, and it can be shocking in a lot of ways. Everybody has their day on these trips when they fall apart. They're tired, hot, hungry, they didn't sleep well. You need some students who are real leaders who can step in and help."
Ragnone's maturity and personal experiences make her one of those, she said.
Ragnone said she just hopes the group will have some impact on the people they meet and that they'll bring back skills and wisdom that will make them better nurses.
"I care about here, there and everywhere," she said. "Katrina really opened my eyes about how necessary it is to look out for our fellow man, how much better things could be if we are working together toward a cause."
***
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