Discover ways on how you can support our mission by checking out our current requests for assistance. To learn more about our programs, contact Our Heart Your Hands at [email protected] 

Currently we have ongoing requests for educational scholarships in several African countries, support for continuing education seminars, and to sponsor African attendees to both the 2022 World Congress (May 2-5th Sibenik, Croatia) and IFNA supported Regional Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, originally scheduled for 2020, postponed to 2021 and postponed again --date TBD..    We have committed to sponsor 5 African Nurse Anesthetists to this meeting, thanks to the generous donations we have received thus far.  

Please contact us if you would like to direct a donation to a specific cause and we will honor your request. We are seeking a grant of $1200 each to sponsor each additional nurse anesthetist to the World Congress or Kenyan Congress.  Partial grants are helpful!

We are also continuously seeking donations for other continuing education opportunities and equipment needs for nurse anesthetists from middle and low income countries. 

We will keep you informed on the progress of our programs by constantly updating our website about the latest news on grants, scholarships, and donations. Here, you will find who they went to and what amounts or materials were donated, among others.

Ebou Cham, MSN, CRNA of Roots Health Services for the development of a nurse anesthesia program in Gambia to be used for developing the program’s curriculum or development of faculty leaders. This grant was selected as the 2022 Ronald Caulk Memorial Grant. Grants & Scholarship Awards:

• In 2018, we granted a scholarship to Napthal Ndutiye to attend a nurse anesthesia educational program in Rwanda. While Napthal began his education in 2018, he did not receive his degree until February of 2022 due to many delays caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. His scholarship was paid in two installments in September 2018 and January 2019.

• In 2018 we awarded the inaugural Ron Caulk Memorial Scholarship to Muhamed Abdi Bilaal, Nurse Anesthetist, Somalialand, to attend the World Congress of Nurse Anesthetists in Hungary.  Unfortunately, his VISA was denied the day before the conference.  We then sponsored Mohamed to the 3rd Annual Scientific Conference of the Uganda Anaesthetic Officers meeting in October 2018.

•  In both 2018 and 2019, we sponsored Ms. Lorba Tulay from Liberia for her Master's in Nursing Education and we also able to provider her an additional grant for a laptop so she could complete her research project for her master's degree. Ms. Tulay is a practicing nurse anesthetist and educator in Liberia.

• In 2019 we were honored to sponsor Mary Mungai, Nurse Anesthetist from Kenya, as the Ron Caulk Memorial Scholarship recipient, affording Mary the ability to complete her final year of study for a Master's in Nursing Education from the University of Glasgow.  Ms. Mungai is a dedicated and well-known nurse anesthesia educator in Kenya and has helped train many of the nurse anesthetists in the surrounding areas of her country.  

• In 2020, we approved 5 grants to send 5 African Nurse Anesthetists to the Inaugural Pan African Nurse Anesthetists Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  Unfortunately this Congress was another casualty of COVID-19 and was originally postponed to June 2021 and, once again, postponed with a date to be determined. Three grants had been distributed prior to the postponement (Aaron Sonah, Liberia, Thomas Munyanziza, Rwanda, and Isola Rafiu, Nigeria.

• In 2021 we were able to provide Ms. Lorba Tulay (Liberia) with a grant for a laptop so she could finish her masters degree research.  Lorba completed her  degree from Cuttington Univeristy Graduate School in 2021 and is an educator at the Phebe Nurse Anesthesia Program in Liberia.

• The 2021 Ron Caulk Memorial Grant was awarded to the Cameroon Association of Nurse Anesthetists for purchase of ACLS training equipment which included adult, pediatric and neonatal mannequins, defibrillator, intubation heads and equipment, drug box and simulated medications.  Thank you to those who donated funds to this initiative and made it possible to fund the entire request within a two week period!

• In 2022, we funded Mohamed Suddam, Kenya, expenses for his nurse anesthesia educational program tuition.  We also provided a grant for Naphtal Ndutiye, Rwanda, to attend an anesthesia continuing education meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.  Further, we donated $1000 to Health Volunteers Overseas in honor of Dr. RIck Henker's sustained work with HVO.  This grant was designated for use on a project involving training of nurse anesthetists in a low income country.  A $1000 grant was awarded to Ebou Cham, MSN, CRNA of Roots Health Services for the development of a nurse anesthesia program in Gambia to be used for developing the program’s curriculum or development of faculty leaders. This grant was selected as the 2022 Ronald Caulk Memorial Grant. 

Please join us as we work to help Nurse Anesthetists from around the world gain or maintain knowledge, skills, and competencies so they can better their lives and the lives of those they serve.

AANA Past President Ronald F. Caulk, CRNA, FAAN, was a pivotal force in global nurse anesthesia leadership and the founding of the International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists.  A “dynamic leader with strong convictions,” Caulk not only took a leadership role in the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA), serving as its president (1977-78), but also served as the AANA representative to the IFNA before serving as its vice president, president, and ultimately as its executive director from 1995 until he retired in 2004. Ron passed away in April 2016 but his legacy will live on forever.  The Ronald Caulk Memorial Scholarship/Grant was established in 2017 in honor of Ron's service to global nurse anesthesia and his desire to help educate nurse anesthetists around the world.