Maggie McKay (Host): Embark on an extraordinary journey with us today on In Their Words with Blandine Sandwidi, an incredible woman whose path led her from Burkina Faso to the U.S. and eventually to Harrisburg, where fate intertwined with the UPMC in Central Pennsylvania Nurse-Family Partnership. Explore Blandine's narrative as she shares the challenges, triumphs, and unexpected turns that define her remarkable life.

The Nurse-Family Partnership is not only a program that offers personalized care to income-eligible pregnant patients, but one that played a pivotal role in Blandine's journey. It is a testament to the transformative impact of this initiative, where highly trained nurses become pillars of support, answering questions, and guiding families through the precious early years of their child's life.

Blandine Sandwidi: First, I was at Gainesville, because I came with a student visa. And then, at the time, my boyfriend was here, we weren't married yet. And he invited me to come here. I wanted to stay in Florida, but he convinced me to come to Harrisburg. I thought that it was nice to come, so I joined him where he is. I'm from Burkina Faso, West Africa. Well, Burkina Faso is a West African country. It's a landlocked country. So, Burkina Faso is a tiny bit if you look at in the Africa card, so you can see how tiny it is, but it's a beautiful country. People are welcoming and very nice, and people really work hard every day. And I am proud to be from Burkina Faso.

I wanted to come here to study. So, that was my first desire, to come to study and to gain more knowledge, because I graduated with a Master Degree in Sociology. And I wanted to discover, I like to discover. Well, my uncle was really nice to help me with all the paperwork, and he thinks that it's really an opportunity for me to learn more. My family was really excited for me to come here and to learn.

Nurse-Family Partnership, well, I fell pregnant. And then, I went to my prenatal visit, right? So, I went to my prenatal visit and the nurse asked me, "Oh, do you want somebody to come and support you at home?" At that time, I didn't really understand what she meant because I didn't speak English at that time. So, my husband, because when I came here, we got married, at that time now, he explained to me what that meant, like they're going to come to my house. And I'm like, "Okay. So, I'm not working, how I'm going to afford that?" And they explained to him that it's a free program that I can actually join. The nurse would be coming to my house and support me with my needs. So, that's how I came across.

Well, the experience was great. The experience was great, because it's after, I believe, a couple of months when I came in Harrisburg that I fell pregnant and I was still new to the country, so I needed to know and to learn a lot about pregnancy, plus I didn't have any support. So, my experience with NFP was great. Because first of all, the trust that they have in me and I have in them. So, it's just helped me to open up more about myself, about my story. Because if you don't know someone, it's hard for you to help this person.

So, the trust that they had in me empowered me. And the nurse kept telling me, you can do this. So, I'm here to support you. Being a first time mom, I'm telling you, it's not easy. It is not easy when you don't have your mom around. You know, where I am born, like in Africa, when you're pregnant, you have your family around you. You really don't care about anything because you know they're here. But right here, well, you're alone with your husband and he doesn't know, he doesn't have any clue. He knew we're having a baby, that's all. So, it was really interesting to be part of this program who supported me, who actually helped me to build lifetime goals. Because, like I told you, I didn't speak any English, you know, so the nurse of course encouraged me to go back to school. You know, "You can learn. You can be a nurse." And I'm like, "Hmm, nurse? How am I going to be a nurse? I don't even speak English."

And then, I started going to school. She always reminded me about my strengths. She never reminded me about my weaknesses. She'd always focus on my strengths. You always focus on what I can do with everything that I have as potential and actually, based on that, to build my goals. And today, I can happily say that this is a success. So because I became a nurse, first, I was a LPN. Well, I started with a CNA and then LPN and then my registered nurse degree. I'm not stopping there, so I'm still going. I want to do my nurse practitioner.

Host: As a patient of the Nurse-Family Partnership Program, Blandine saw firsthand the incredible work and support that was offered. It not only impacted her on a personal level, but soon enough, a professional one.

Blandine Sandwidi: Well, first, when she was coming, it was interesting. Like I said, somebody comes to your house and offers you support. And I saw the change that it automatically had in my life. It changed my whole vision, my vision about everything. And then, they kept encouraging me, "Okay. This is what you can do." And when I started going to school, I discovered that, "Okay. So, what they're telling me is actually true, that I have the strength to do it." So, I will say that it's natural, but also sometimes you need somebody to say you can do it. You have it in you until somebody just says you can do it. And then, when she first said you can be a nurse, I'm like, "Okay." Well, I didn't really think at the moment. I was like, "Okay. You don't make sense to me. That doesn't make sense to me." So then, I started school and then I went to see my adviser. And I talked to her about going into nursing. And she was like, "Oh boy. That's not an easy program. And knowing that you speak French, you have to learn English and you have to learn nursing English." And I'm like, "You know what, just because you said that, I'm going to go for nursing." And I just started working hard. So, I believe I had the highest GPA and I was actually retained for the LPN program at that time. A lot of students applied to be in the program. But at that time, I believe they were only taking 50 students at the time. So, I was very happy to be part of these 50 students.

I was doing everything at the same time. I would say because I started the program in the end of 2008, and I graduated 2011, in December 2011, I was just going, I didn't even want to stop. I didn't want to stop. And at that time, I tell you what, I got a job with them as their secretary. So, I was doing a part time job when I was going to my LPN school full time. So when I graduated with my LPN, my manager at that time, Judy Bostorf, a strong lady, amazing lady, who supported me all the way and she's still supporting me. She's amazing. I call her my mom, my United States mom. So, she's right. She's just amazing. She just keeps pushing me. "You can do this, Blandine. I'm behind you. You can do this." And every time I have a test, she will come and say, "How did you do on the test? You better get A!" I'm like, "Yes, ma'am!" I will put that this way, it is really strong.

So yes, that's how I was going with my life. And she said, "Well, you have your LPN, so what are you going to do?" I'm like, "I'm not stopping. I'm going to go for my RN. And I'm going to stay here, work, because I was doing part time, and I will do PRN as LPN, outside, and keep going to school." so, I was doing that. So, my whole life was like jobs, and work, and family. My son is 13. Jayden is going to be 14 in May. He's so proud. So, he is very proud. He's like, "Mommy, you are so strong. Since I was born, you're going to school. You're still going to school!"

See, you know, I have to learn English and I have to learn a lot. And being in a new place, learning about all the culture, it's not easy. And I can say that I'm still learning. I am. After my RN, actually, I got a job with UPMC Westshore, where I was working full time. And one day, Judy called me and she's like, "We're looking for a nurse. Do you want to come back?" I'm like, "Well, but I don't have my BSN." And she said, "Well, if you are looking into going to school for your BSN, you can be with us while you are working on your BSN." And I said yes to that. And immediately, I started my BSN program. I believe it took me like maybe a year and a half to graduate with my BSN. So when I was working with Nurse-Family Partnerships, I started seeing families. And it's fascinating and I'm seeing the life that's changing, people going to school, so encouraging them, just telling them that they can do it. So, that's what it takes, just tell them you can do it. Well, it gave me more strength, because I'm seeing what they're doing and what they want to do. And also, they're empowering me more and more. They're teaching me also. It's a give and take program.

Host: When asked what her favorite part of working with the Nurse-Family Partnership is, for Blandine, the answer is simple.

Blandine Sandwidi: My favorite part is actually spending time with these moms, like a full day, having a visit with them, talking to them about their goals, talking to them about their babies, how they can change life, how they can impact the community. Because everything starts in the family. Everything that we are seeing, it starts in the family. So, we build strong relationships in families while they're going to go outside and impact others. They are my friends, yes. Well, I have friends. Probably, I don't spend a lot of time with them.

Host: The work Blandine does with the Nurse-Family Partnership reminded her of those women and children in need in her hometown and sparked a new idea and a way to make a difference wherever she could.

Blandine Sandwidi: So, this vision of the project, I will say, that it's really starts taking shape when I was seeing my life changing, that I'm able to care for my baby with that support. So, I start thinking about how about these people don't have any support. Even when we talk about nutrition, like my project, we're going to be working a lot on nutrition, so helping mom, helping kids with severe malnutrition. So, sometimes they have ingredients, but they don't know how to put it together so it can become nutritious for the baby. So, they need education. So, I can see that the education is what it's about, and I'm really for it, for education. Education changes life. And I think that the vision is from there, getting the support from Nurse-Family Partnership, in seeing how it's changed life, how it changed baby's life, so I can do the same, somewhere that they really don't know sometimes what to do. Because these places, it's really, really hard. But with education with this project, I believe we can change something.

So, this program, like I said, first of all, let me tell you the name of it. It's called Women Healthcare Initiative Foundation. So like I said, I started working on this project a couple years ago. I was going to give up until I met a co-worker and explained to her the whole thing. Because every time I go serve people in the community and I'm thinking about-- because these are the moms that I know well back in Burkina Faso and I know the situation. So, I kept thinking about the same, it keeps taking me back home. So, each time I go out in the community, my mind solving all these visits with the mom. So, I keep thinking also about home. "Oh, I hope I can do something like that for women back home." And then, as we start working on the project, eventually, we got the license to practice in the United States, we got the license and we also got the 501(c). So, we are a full non-profit organization. And like I said, we're going to be focusing on women's and infant's, children's health. So, we're going to be working on them.

So, when I first think about the organization, I'm seeing somewhere that they lack healthcare. The access to healthcare is just problematic. It is crucial. So, they lack facilities, they lack providers. It will be nice if I can participate in training local women so they can take care of each other. So if you train somebody who's going to train someone, I mean, like I said, they're going to care for each other, but they need to know what to do. So, without the knowledge, of course, they don't know where to go.

So, like I said, another factor that affects women's health is what? So, you probably heard about female genitalia mutilation, which many women face today and still facing. So, we are trying to offer them psychological support. We are trying to know maybe some counseling for them. Because when you have that done and you have a baby, it's hard to take care of your baby, so how we can assist these women. This is another aspect of my organization, how we're going to assist them. And we're going to be focusing on women, pregnant women with difficulties, especially having mental issues. Because this is a place where because of the poverty, it's hard to take care of the need. And sometimes these people, they are isolated. They are all by themselves. How we can actually help them, tell them that they're part of the society and we cannot leave them by themselves. So, this is something that we're going to be working on in the long run. But the first step of this organization, it's children's nutrition. And we are looking into having our own center, so like a community center where we're going to have an educator to educate women how they can transform local products that they can use for nutrition, how they can do that. So, that's another aspect of the program. And like I said, education, education, education, very, very important.

Like a medical facility in the long run, because it's a step that you are taking. So, we start up small, you know, with nutrition. And we see how we can actually see prenatal women like, you know how we can see them postpartum period, because this is very important. They lack followup after they have a baby. It's hard. So, sometimes we just have to have people there. If they know somebody is there, they will go and listen to them. They don't understand what you're doing. And sometimes you don't even know what you're doing. We know postpartum depression, really, it is serious.

Host: When asked why people should support the work of the Nurse-Family Partnership, a program supported by the UPMC Pinnacle Foundation, Blandine had some compelling reasons to share.

Blandine Sandwidi: Well, we should support this program, because changing the life of the people is changing the whole community. And you see children are impacted by this program. You know, we see many women, you start with somebody who didn't have anything on board. And after two years, this person's life changed. And actually, when you change somebody's life, you're not changing one, you're changing a lot, you're changing a future. And if we are really looking into making our future better than today, we better change the life of the people.

So if you have to support this program, support this program, because it's an amazing program. I am an example. And I'll keep impacting others. That's what it is. Anybody that see me, even people from my country, some people coming, they're like, "Okay, so how and where did you start?" And you explain to them, and they actually start going to school or they're like, "Okay, we can do it also." They can do it, but they have to see it.

Maggie McKay (Host): As we wrap up this extraordinary episode of In Their Words, we extend our deepest gratitude to Blandine Sandwidi for graciously sharing her incredible journey with us. From Burkina Faso to Harrisburg, her story is nothing short of inspiring. Blandine's unwavering strength and commitment to securing the health and well-being of women and children in her community stands as a testament to her humanity and the spirit of the Nurse-Family Partnership. Until next time, thank you for listening to In Their Words, where every story has the power to inspire.