tationed in the beautiful but poor country of Zambia, home to the legendary African walking safari and the Earth’s biggest waterfall, nurse missionary June Horning ’50 stood before a classroom of Zambian people ready to teach the basic standards of nursing necessary to be granted certification. Horning hoped that with the knowledge of community health and certification, these people could help ease the severe desolation in the African province created by drought and the daily deaths from HIV and AIDS.

With 39 years of both professional and voluntary nursing experience, Horning began serving as administrator at a nursing school in 1992 at the Zambia mission compound, sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee. Her job was to make sure the students met nursing standards, as well as to prepare them for exams. “We had a very good rate of passing students during the time that I was there,” Horning says with pride.

The Zambia mission also included a hospital that serviced 35 rural health clinics. Horning occasionally went along on medical visits to these rural units. While at the clinics, she helped with check-ups for pregnant women and young children, assessing their health and providing immunizations. “We prayed for them before they were examined,” Horning says.

Journeying into the villages of Zambia, Horning saw the desolate state of the African province. She witnessed the poverty and high death rate due to starvation and the AIDS epidemic. “That’s the thing that really hits you,” Horning says. “It’s difficult to see babies dying every day when you know if they were in our country they could likely be saved.”

Making time to interact with Zambian locals, she says, “I think the most rewarding experience was just meeting the people and having them meet you.”

Horning continued her missionary work in Africa until 1995, when she returned home to Shillington, Pa.

When she was a student at Albright, she realized early on that she preferred helping at the bedside to working in the lab. After earning her master’s degree in nursing from Yale University School of Nursing, one of only two nursing degree programs in the country at that time, Horning served as a nurse in both a professional and volunteer capacity. Working primarily in the nursing education field, she developed a particular interest in the area of community health.

When Horning’s husband, Roderick Horning ’51, passed away in 1987, she decided it was time to pursue her second master’s degree. A degree in community health would allow her to serve as a nurse missionary in foreign countries, providing care to villages in need. “It had always been my favorite area of nursing, and I knew I wanted to do missionary work eventually,” Horning says.

At age 62, she earned her community health nurse master of science degree from DeSales University, although she was not present to receive her degree as she was already in Africa at the time of her graduation.

Currently serving as a parish nurse at the Calvary United Methodist Church in Mohnton, Pa., Horning assists the congregation by visiting parish members who are hospitalized as well as those in long-term care facilities or at home. She also counsels parish members through grief and crises.

Her experience in Africa, however, is one she’ll never forget. Through monetary donations, Horning still remains connected to the Zambian people. “There’s a woman I got to know over there who has five children and her husband died,” she says. Horning sends money to this family to help them pay for food. She also helps pay the college tuition of the oldest son in the family. “I’m hoping that helping him get through college will make him better able to support his family.” Even though she can’t stay in Zambia and administer to every single family, Horning says, “I can at least do my part in helping one family and that’s all I can do.

It’s gratifying for me to help this one young man get an education and hopefully better his future.”

– Jordan M. Mauger ’06