Milford School Nurse To Volunteer In War-Torn Ukraine

MILFORD, CT — Joan Braun, 71, of Milford, has been an elementary school nurse for 24 years.

During the last five years, Braun has spent the school year as a nurse at Live Oaks Elementary and spent her summers helping with Camp Happiness, a camp for children with special needs in Milford.

But this summer, she will be in Ukraine for two weeks with Global Care Force to provide primary care in communities cut off from medical care due to the war.

“When the invasion began, I was appalled at what was happening, and just felt empathy for the Ukrainian people,” Braun said. “I felt compelled to do something.”

Braun has been a Registered Nurse since 1975. She has worked in hospitals in newborn and pediatric ICUs, as well as in geriatrics and a special needs facility before working in schools.

Braun has never served in a war setting.

"I think the biggest challenge for me, would have been the language, but we will have an interpreter with us," she said.

Braun said she will share her experiences with Milford students in the 2025-26 school year.

On how she feels about "having the privilege of volunteering with Global Care Force," Braun shared the following quote from 19th-century philosopher Henry David Thoreau:

"I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I want to live deep and suck out all the marrow out of life."

Global Care Force, a nonprofit based in Lenexa, Kansas, sends medical volunteers to Ukraine every month. The organization has deployed medical volunteers monthly to the same group of villages and refugee centers since September of 2022, ensuring patients receive free care, medications, and benefit from continuity of care.

Volunteers address common, yet potentially life-threatening conditions including hypertension, diabetes, and digestive and cardiac disorders, according to Global Care Force. Volunteers have treated nearly 10,000 patients and provided $231,000 in free medications.