On and off the floor, nurse treats Kentucky patients, helps Haiti citizens

Since 2016, Andrelle Moreau, BSN, RN, has been donating money and time to support children and families in her home country of Haiti, known to be one of the poorest countries in the world financially and unstable politically and socially. For the first several years, Andrelle and her husband, James, sent money to Eben-Ezer de Bombardopolis Church in Bombardopolis, Haiti, for school tuition, but this year they wanted to do more.

“In July, we purchased backpacks, school supplies and hygienic products,” Andrelle said.?

When co-worker Tiffany Overbeck, BSN, RN, CCRN, assistant patient care manager, heard about Andrelle's efforts, she suggested that the entire internal medicine and pulmonary care unit (9 universal) at UK HealthCare, take it on as one of the team’s regular service projects.

“We try to do service projects yearly, if not twice per year,” Overbeck said. “People like getting involved.”

“They like to see the results of how much money was raised or what was donated, and it’s nice to see the pictures,” added Emma Taylor, BSN, RN, patient care manager. “Our unit has been through a lot being a COVID unit. There were a lot of challenges, and we felt these projects could be a way to bring people together and instill positivity.”?

Andrelle’s project grew from 48 backpacks to 144. “Me and my husband are grateful to my team for helping us and the people in Haiti,” she said. “They have been very, very good to us.”

The couple traveled to Haiti over the summer to deliver the backpacks and supplies, and to help serve food purchased with the monetary donations they had collected.

“I thought it was going to be 100 to 200 children, but when we got there we had over 500 kids,” Andrelle said. “Fortunately, the church was able to give additional money to feed all of the kids. Many of them don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Even though families largely do agriculture, they have to sell the food to afford tuition, shoes, clothes and hygienic products.”

She was both moved and disheartened; moved by the outpouring of gratitude and disheartened by the breadth of support families still needed.?

“It’s one thing to give a toothbrush and toothpaste, and clothes and shoes, but we saw many people with bacterial infections and women with vaginal infections,” Andrelle said. “I saw a kid eat a mango that had fallen on the ground. It’s not just about giving, but also about teaching them that if they wash their hands, they won’t need to go to the hospital for an infection. They need food, but when they get the food, how do they prepare it? We can teach them not to use too much salt because that can give them cardiac problems.”

Andrelle and James are taking what they experienced and learned during their summer trip to expand the time, supplies and hands-on support they provide when they return in October. Over eight days, they will distribute backpacks, food, school supplies and hygiene products, but Andrelle will also utilize her medical knowledge and expertise to provide basic health education.

Their nonprofit organization, The Backpack Project for HT, is an official platform for growing their efforts to help more families. Andrelle hopes that in the near future they will be able to train community leaders to serve as health educators who can reach greater numbers of people, especially those unable to travel to the church.

“I talked to the church pastor about forming a group to educate them and do trainings like CPR,” she explained. “When I was growing up, if you saw someone seizing, you would just leave them, but now we can teach them that if they turn the person to their side, they won’t choke on their secretions.

“The Backpack Project for HT is about empowering youth and communities through education and health promotion, and it’s not just about Haiti,” Andrelle added. “Even here we have children who need help, supplies and education. Wherever we need to be to make a difference, that’s where we’ll be.”

After seeing the full scope of the community’s needs, Andrelle and James are planning to change the name of the organization to Hope & Health HT.?

“Our mission will always be to provide backpacks filled with supplies to children, but health literacy is important and can help prevent health problems, protect the health of the population, and help them manage their current conditions,” Andrelle explained.?

Above: The efforts of Andrelle and James Moreau's The Backpack Project HT, along with donations from Andrelle's colleagues, helped feed 500 children in?Bombardopolis, Haiti, in July 2022

‘That trip put the fire in me to keep going’

Andrelle’s passion and family mixed with her service work and a bit of serendipity created the recipe for her current career as a nurse.

“Since I was little I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “Even my classmates would call me ‘doctor.’ In Haiti, they don’t have a nurse practitioner program. You either have to be a nurse or a doctor.”

Although it turned out that becoming a doctor was not an option for her, a conference about health care careers hosted at the University of Kentucky in 2014 introduced her to other opportunities.?

“I was told it might take me longer because I didn’t go to high school and I needed to learn a little more English,” said Andrelle, who had only recently moved to the United States at age 19 in 2012. “I did two years of science courses at Bluegrass Community and Technical College and started working as a patient transporter at UK HealthCare in 2016.”?

In 2017, she traveled back to Haiti to visit her family and help local community members. “It was me and my aunts; one is a pharmacist and a couple are nurse practitioners,” Andrelle said. “We partnered with doctors in Haiti, and they provided medical consults and health education. We would also go outside the city where they don’t have shoes or clothes and distribute whatever we could find that was in good condition.?

“That trip put the fire in me to keep going,” she continued. “The community still needs so much help, and the health care system there is not good. They need to learn basic handwashing techniques, suicide prevention, domestic violence prevention and infection prevention.”

Andrelle’s mother, who was also in a nursing education program at the time, suggested that applying as a nursing care technician might help her determine if a nursing career would suit her. It did.

“I love nursing; I love what it stands for,” she said. “I started the nursing program at Kentucky State University and graduated with my RN in 2019, then I took year off and graduated with my BSN last year.”

Andrelle is currently working toward her doctorate of nursing practice at KSU, scheduled to earn her degree in 2024.?

“I’ve taken care of all kinds of patients and populations, and I’ve learned a lot working on the floor as a registered nurse,” she said. “UK HealthCare has helped me to become who I am today, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. Sometimes we want what we want for our lives, but we forget that God has a purpose for us. It’s not what I originally wanted, but it’s what God wanted me to do, and I’m so grateful.”

Would you like to support The Backpack Project HT?

Call?859-693-0919?or?859-421-8088, or email?[email protected].