Niki Harris is volunteering with CMMB as a registered nurse in Trujillo and Huancayo, Peru for a year. She has been a registered nurse for nine years and has wanted to go out of country and help those in need for as long as she can remember. Niki is originally from Boise, Idaho. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Seattle University and then earned her Master’s degree in Nursing for Community Health from the University of Washington. Her graduate degree gave her the knowledge and resources to operate as a community nurse especially in developing and impoverished communities. Now with CMMB, she has the opportunity to put her degree to work, not only for the betterment of the people she is treating, but for the betterment of herself.

In her first blog post from Huancayo, Niki makes it clear that though Huancayo is one of Peru’s biggest cities, there are still many impoverished people. Those who live far away from the more developed downtown are plagued by lack of access to safe water, food, garbage disposal, and proper sewage. Seeing people outside of the developed world who suffer from lack of care makes Niki want to do as much as she possibly can to help. Without safe and clean water and food, all the medicine in the world is not going to make a difference to those that are sick and dying. Health starts with water.

By working with CMMB’S nurses and community health workers, Niki has seen what proper education and compensation can drive in a human. To help others, one has to have compassion in their heart, but it is much easier to help when you don’t have to worry about your own livelihood. Like other CMMB volunteers, Niki feels blessed to be in the position to be in a foreign country to help and also to learn. Her year with CMMB will be a great one. She is writing about her Peruvian experiences on the CMMB blog; don’t be afraid to check it out to see follow up posts!