Thursday 21 October 2021

Florence Nightingale Higher Institute Begins Academic Year With Thanksgiving Service

By Francis Ekongang Nzante


An Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service has been organised to Kick-start the Academic Year in Bamenda. This important prayer and thanksgiving service assembled the three main stream Christian churches at the weekend within the confines of the premises of the Florence Nightingale Higher Institute of Health and Biomedical Sciences Bamenda on Saturday October 17th at the request of the Director of the institution Mr Nkwain Joseph.

 The Ecumenical Service was celebrated by Rev Father Forgwei Martin, Catholic Parish Priest CUCC Mbelan, the Rev Pastor of the Presbyterian Church Ntambessi and Rev Pastor Ngong Denis of the Cameroon Baptist Convention CBC.

After an opening prayer that was said by the Rev Pastor of the Presbyterian Church Ntambessi, a reading was read from the First Letter  of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians by Rev Father  Martin Forgwei. This reading was followed up by a homily which focused on the importance of always giving thanks to God irrespective of the circumstances in which we found ourselves. Closing prayers were said by Rev Pastor Ngong Denis.


Offertory procession

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Rev Father Forgwei Martin who is the Chaplain  for the University of Bamenda and all the other Higher Institutions of Learning in Bamenda in a brush with the press said “there is no better way to begin the Academic Year than to say thank you God. This is because thanking God is recognition of a favour. Thanking God as we saw in our reading of today from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians chapter Five is a recognition of the goodness of God. Thanking God is not just because the Lord is good but is because even when things are not good God can always turn things around in our favour. I think this institution has acted in wisdom and that this academic year will make things much better for them.

Reverend Pastor Ngong Denis of the Cameroon Baptist Convention CBC Youth Service and Institutions when accosted by this reporter said “today at the Florence Nightingale Higher Institute we took part in an Ecumenical service to thank God for the wonderful things he has been doing to humanity through this institution. They’ve had a huge success story and because of this they thought it wise to rally together and tell God thank you. It is simply to appreciate God and to tell him that what we have comes from Him. To tell him that we recognise him as the creator of the universe and as our maker and so who we are is by His grace. They are here today to say God we are grateful for all that has happened in our lives.”

The Director of the establishment Mr Nkwain Joseph said the establishment is “owned by fifteen Board Members who are Senior Health Personnel, some retired and some still in active service.”

The school he said had every reason to begin the Academic Year by thanking God. Among these reasons were he said the churning out of health personnel with top quality results among other countless reasons to thank the Almighty.

“From the inception of the school, we have been having 100% most of the time apart from a few instances that we had 95% when two students failed. During the Academic Year 2019/2020, the school was ranked first in HND results on the National Territory by the Ministry of Higher Education. In the Academic Year 2020/2021, the best students in HND Nursing and Medical Laboratory Sciences in the whole country came from Florence Nightingale. We have every reason to thank God.”

Mr Nkwain Joseph proudly recalled that in 2020 the establishment received the Cameroon Performance Awards and that in 2021 the establishment also received an Award from the Life Time Media Group for Excellence in the training of quality health personnel.

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Bamenda to train Bachelor students in Nursing, Midwifery and Medical Laboratory Sciences amongst other allied options, this move was followed up by the signing of a Specific Partnership Agreement a few weeks ago.

Thanksgiving to God he said was most appropriate especially as the establishment had crowned it all with the churning out of the first batch of BNS Bachelor in Nursing as well as Bachelor students in Medical Laboratory Sciences BMLS. The occasion was rendered beautiful and colourful by beautiful singing from the school choir.

 

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