ICAN geared to prove they can do it in Sri Lanka

What is ICAN? The whole island is agog wondering about ICAN!! What is this mystery organization arriving in Sri Lanka? What are they going to be doing? Why are they here? Will it benefit our country? Will it benefit the world?

However, all of us will have to be patient until next week to find out more about ICAN. Meanwhile, we challenge you to find them before they reveal themselves. Or…simply read the full details in next week’s paper right here in this section. Here are some hints to help you find out more about ICAN:
ICAN is about education and training. ICAN empowers women. ICAN helps university graduates. ICAN graduates will find well-paying jobs. ICAN graduates may earn more than 500,000SLR each month. ICAN graduates will have the opportunity to work overseas. ICAN graduates can work anywhere they choose. ICAN is endorsed by major figures in the government of Sri Lanka. ICAN’s first campus will be known as “Shiranthi Wickramasinghe Rajapaksa” campus. ICAN is supported by many world leaders.
ICAN has a website that starts with www. ICAN is a social project. ICAN will help Sri Lanka’s development. ICAN will increase remittances and improve Sri Lanka’s balance of trade. The I in ICAN stands for International.

ICAN students can defer payments until after they start earning. ICAN students don’t have to pay anything if after they finish they earn less than about 100,000SLR per month. One of the founders of ICAN is a native Sri Lankan. The founders are pictured here with Jaliya Wickramasuriya, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to USA. ICAN will train unemployed/underemployed university-graduated women in an accelerated programme in Sri Lanka. ICAN graduates will remit money to their families and communities resulting in valuable foreign exchange for Sri Lanka. ICAN’s direct investments help boost the Sri Lankan economy and create jobs. ICAN’s innovative tuition plan defers all tuition until after students graduate and start earning, allowing women from all economic strata to participate. ICAN students will not be a burden on their parents or families. ICAN tuition is scaled according to opportunity chosen, at 10% of earned income for 10 years.

ICAN tuition is waived if income is low in any year, encouraging the choice of social jobs and time off to raise families. ICAN will stress American cultural immersion and English language for its students. ICAN’s accelerated programme is planned over two years in six consecutive trimesters with rolling admissions. ICAN’s curriculum based on WHO and AACN standards has been approved by Sri Lankan authorities. ICAN has strong support from the Sri Lankan government and many institutions. ICAN students will be drawn primarily from university-graduated women in Sri Lanka as well as from USA and other countries. ICAN will collaborate on tailoring training specific to the needs of customers. ICAN’s English-speaking, accent-trained graduates, productive on the first day of work, will benefit employers. ICAN is a play on words… you can, I can, we all can! Find out more about ICAN next week!!

Original article:

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110123/Education/ed03.html

ICAN Founders Munira and Shabbir then spoke about  ICAN (International College of American Nursing), an innovative social enterprise to empower unemployed women graduates in Sri Lanka, while simultaneously alleviating the global nursing shortage. Guests included leaders in social innovation and philanthropy, MIT in the Bay area, Stanford alumni and faculty, and our outstanding group of advisors. It was an informative afternoon and an exciting discussion about how investing in women can unlock infinite potential around the globe.

Now, Shabbir Nomanbhoy’s story: At the urging of friend and past class secretary Dick Fletcher, he writes about a philanthropic project that he and wife Munira are working on to start a nursing school in Sri Lanka. Twenty years ago he started, and then ran and eventually sold, an integrated home-nursing company, becoming intimately familiar with the huge, looming worldwide nursing shortage. The World Health Organization has declared this to be a major crisis, as the world’s population ages and citizens of fast-developing countries like India and Brazil demand more and better health care. Without adequate human resources, the best of drugs and medical research cannot be effectively delivered, and nurses are central to that delivery.

ICAN Receives Curriculum Approval for New Nursing Program in Sri Lanka

Shabbir Nomanbhoy, founder and CEO of ICAN (International College of American Nursing), announced today that the Sri Lankan government has awarded provisional approval for ICAN’s curriculum for its accelerated RN/BSN program. This paves the way for ICAN to initiate work on its nursing school in Sri Lanka which will train new nurses specifically for employment in USA.

“Curriculum approval is a significant milestone for ICAN” said Mr. Nomanbhoy. “We have been building support all across Sri Lanka for this project. This approval brings us close to our objective of starting a nursing school to train unemployed Sri Lankan college-graduated women in an accelerated RN/BSN program geared specifically for employment in American hospitals to alleviate the nursing shortage in USA .

The ICAN curriculum is based on AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing) standards and the WHO Global Standards for Professional Nursing. The curriculum also includes important additional courses such as English accent training, American nursing culture immersion, and information technology courses designed to prepare nurses for working in US hospitals. Professor Judith McFarland, RN, FAAN, DrPH, at Texas Woman’s University in Houston, TX, and also at Aga Khan University in Karachi, led the ICAN curriculum development team. Her extensive experience in nursing education in USA and South Asia was vital in developing a curriculum to satisfy International standards, US standards and Sri Lankan standards. In May of this year, ICAN received permission from Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition to use two 700 bed government hospitals for clinical training purposes.

In September, Dr. H. A.P. Kahandaliyanage, Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Healthcare met with the ICAN management team in California and assured support of the Sri Lankan government for ICAN’s plan. According to Kahandaliyanage, “there are a lot of benefits for Sri Lanka, including increased foreign exchange remittances, improved level of emigrants, reduced unemployment among women graduates, and cross fertilization of ideas in healthcare and education.”

About ICAN
ICAN is a US-based social venture that seeks to alleviate the US nursing shortage, while empowering unemployed college-graduated women in Sri Lanka by training them to be nurses and placing them with USA hospitals. Munira Nomanbhoy, a Sri Lankan native, and her husband Shabbir founded ICAN as a social project and bridge between the two nations. A team of 12 professionals from various backgrounds, including healthcare, marketing and finance, based in the USA and Sri Lanka, has been working tirelessly on ICAN’s goal to set up the first accelerated nursing program in Sri Lanka. Classes are set to commence in 2010. More information on ICAN can be found at www.icannursing.org.

Editorial Contact:

Joyce Hemmer

Director of Marketing, ICAN

joyce.hemmer@icannursing.org