Pictured: The first baby in the Marshall Islands placed on Bubble Nasal CPAP. Bubble Nasal CPAP is a non-invasive treatment modality that can help many babies born in respiratory distress breath easier. It requires education for providers to understand when it is appropriate to use and what they need to monitor, but requires minimal resources to work, making it an excellent solution for a limited resource setting. See information below on our neonatal project for further details.

*Nito’s Wings is committed to the privacy of the communities we serve. Signed consent obtained to share this picture and story.

Nito’s Wings was humbled to be invited to join the Sacramento Marshallese Communities Jemenei Day 2023 Celebrations and Back to School event.

We were grateful to stand beside other organizations there with the Sacramento Marshallese Community, including:  the co-chairs of National Marshallese Community Coalition, the Oregon Marshallese Community Association, the Marshallese Youth of Orange County and the greater Bay Area Marshallese adoptive families, and many more.

Our donations of a bag of healthy back to school food options for the Marshallese Families, coconut waters for the families and athletes, as well as reusable water bottles and a water bottle refill station were made possible by the benevolence of hearts of philanthropy that support our cause, including: a generous financial donation from the family of Robert Fisher in memory of his life and dedication to education as a high school art teacher, ChicoBag, as well as several members of our board of directors.

Kommoltata to all that made this event such as success.

Pictured. Container opening ceremony with Honorable Mayors and/or representatives, Chief of Staff Dr Maddison, Ministry of Health and Human Services Preparedness team, as well as representatives from Nito’s Butterfly Foundation and Nito’s Wings

In August of 2022 the Republic of the Marshall Islands declared a Health Disaster related to COVID-19. Our organization was humbled to find in-kind donors with PPE available that had a heart for our philanthropy. We coordinated our community partners to be sure the supplies we secured were what was needed. We had many hearts and hands helping try to get these items moving forward and finally on November 21, 2022 our items were loaded in a container to be shipped and subsequently arrived in the Marshall Islands in January of 2023.

In September 2021 Nito’s Wings began our Kojjab Make Iam Campaign. Kojjab Make Iam means you are not alone in Marshallese.

The Sacramento Marshallese experience a heartbreaking amount of loss within their community due to COVID-19 and we wanted them to know they were not alone.  We were humbled to secure funding and hired COVID-19 Care Coordinators to provide translation and registration assistance for the Sacramento area Marshallese Community, as well as in language outreach. One of the beautiful parts of the hearts of who we hired is that most had already volunteered to serve their community in this way prior to the funding.

How it worked? Our team coordinated with local vaccination entities in areas where we knew most of the Marshallese in Sacramento live. We obtained permission for our Care Coordinators to be on site and then provided translated outreach in Marshallese to the community about these clinics.

Our COVID-19 Care Coordinators were available onsite for the community at nearly 100 vaccination events.

On September 4, 2021 Nito’s Wings began our Manit ~ Lale Dron Campaign within the Sacramento RiMajol Community. This campaign encouraged what is already Marshallese culture, acting as caregivers, through providing incentives to community members that assisted another community member in obtaining a vaccination. Assistance provided was typically in the form of transportation, which was identified as a barrier for Marshallese in obtaining vaccinations. Together with our COVID-19 care coordinators these efforts assisted almost 500 vaccinations in being administered to local Marshallese.

“Coming together is beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is Success.” Henry Ford

2021 has been a journey of creating new partners as we have navigated serving the Sacramento Marshallese Community as they have navigated COVID-19. In January the Sacramento County Department of Health Services confirmed the heartbreaking statistics our hearts already understood to be true, that the community was experiencing twice the average mortality rate from COVID-19 Link

Twice so far in 2021 Nito’s Wings has been humbled to join partners including: Sacramento County Public Health, Adventist Health, the Shifa Community Clinic, the Salvation Army of Sacramento Citadel Corps, the Sacramento RiMajol Marshallese Community leaders, and the philanthropic hearts of our volunteers to provide culturally cognizant targeted COVID-19 vaccination clinics for Marshallese.

Hopeful to finish out 2021 with continued collaborations to protect the community.

*Pictured. Nito’s Wings founder vaccinating the founder of Nito’s Butterfly Foundation in March 2021. HIPAA compliant consent was obtained prior to photograph being taken.

Our Founder/CEO was a nurse in the ICU at Adventist Health Feather River (AHFR) until November 2018 when the hospital burned during the Camp Fire in Paradise, California. Although much of the infrastructure burned, many of the supplies and equipment survived. Adventist Health Global Missions acquired the equipment and supplies for donation to deserving causes. In honor of the fact that our founder/CEO was out of the country for the simulation project (see below) when her home and community burned, Nito’s Wings was offered the opportunity to be one of the first recipients.

Local Sacramento and Bay Area Marshallese, previous AHFR employees, and others with a passion for our projects came together to sort and create a tangible gift for the Marshall Islands. Priority supplies and equipment needed in the Marshall Islands were identified by Dr. Maddison, chief of staff for the hospital in Majuro.

**Picture credit Courtney Rasmussen

Modern medical training includes simulations with mannequins. Many of these mannequins are as high tech as the idea of a car driving itself. They can literally be programmed to act exactly the way a human body responds on a moment-by-moment basis, and react to interventions by the medical providers. Unlike what is seen on TV, many of the highest-risk situations in medicine occur only rarely, and evidence has shown that practicing these scenarios in simulation settings helps save lives when they present in real life.

Nito’s Wings worked with the chief of staff at the hospital in Majuro, Marshall Islands, to adapt scenarios for staff according to their priorities. Although the only mannequins currently available in the region are low-tech, Nito’s Wings creatively adapted what technology is available.

Simulations included: high-risk OB, pediatric respiratory distress, and pediatric trauma.

*** We are seeking in-kind donations of mannequins to improve these scenarios in the future.

The Marshall Islands Ministry of Health and Human Services (MoHHS) had identified these three areas as opportunities to utilize our founder/CEO’s expertise to evaluate their system. Her experience as a patient in the outer islands infirmary system that required medivac, as well as her certifications as a critical care and flight nurse provided a unique perspective. A formal document was created and presented to the preparedness team. Additionally, this evaluation has provided our CEO with an in-depth understanding of the needs of all of these systems. We hope to collaborate with local providers in providing trainings and in-kind donations to assist the MoHHS in creating the best possible medical system for their region.

Neonatal health and welfare was identified by the Marshall Islands Ministry of Health and Human Services as a priority. Historically, infant mortality rates in the Marshall Islands have been so high that culturally they don’t celebrate a birth until the child is one years old, at which time they throw a large party called a Kamem. In 2012, Unicef placed their infant mortality rate at 31/1000, but other documents have estimated that in the remote outer island settings where data is more difficult to collect these rates may be as high as 90/1000.

We recruited an expert in the field of neonatal care as a volunteer instructor. Our volunteer is certified according to US standards to teach the coursework we provided. We also acquired in-kind donations of equipment and supplies appropriate for the resources available in their region. It has been reported to our organization that these trainings and donations have not only changed their standard of care, but that initial reports are showing a decrease in infant mortality. This training requires continuing education every two years. Our volunteer team had planned to return in the spring of 2020, however due to COVID-19 we have postponed the training until it is safe and ethical to travel.

Nito’s Wings in the Media

Nito Foundations Providing Ongoing Marshall Islands Hospital Help

Good Morning America Interview

Sacramento Bee Article on Pacific Islanders and COVID-19

Nito Touching Lives in the Marshall Islands