Mario Brûlé (foreground and sitting) and Johanne Toupin (standing behind Mario) in May 2005 while on an internship in Diakhao (Senegal).
It was in 2002, in Nunavik, that Johanne Toupin and Mr. Mario Brûlé (both teachers at the time at André-Laurendeau College) converged their passions into a common project: encouraging nursing practice in an expanded role and creating an international clinical nursing internship. A few months later, the first group of nurses: students at the College level, left for an internship in the Senegalese bush. The cohorts succeeded one another and quickly found that fundraising was difficult without the support of a charitable organization recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency.
In 2005, to compensate for this and to facilitate student funding, Mario Brûlé, Johanne Toupin, Robert Morin, Francine Hammond and Marc Simard founded Nurses Without Borders (NWB). Without delay, other educational institutions became interested in clinical internships in Senegal and in NWB’s expertise in implementing these internships.
Since 2005, NWB distinguished itself at the provincial and international levels by its legal recognition, its moral charter, its commitments, its general regulations and its committed, stable and multidisciplinary board of directors as well as by its financial credibility which meets the highest standards in Canadian accounting.
Since its creation, NWB has had over 1,000 members and is one of the official members of the Quebec Association of Organizations for International Cooperation (AQOCI). NWB shares collaboration agreements with various organizations and institutions in Benin, Cameroon, Togo and Peru and annually supports more than ten groups of volunteers.