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The Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industrial Association (NONIA) was formally established in 1924. The aims of the organization were two-fold: to provide medical and health care to families of outport (rural) communities, and to support the nurses financially through the production and sale of knitted goods and other crafts by women in the regions served.
The nursing component of NONIA commenced when the Outport Nursing Association (ONA) was formed in 1920 by a group of prominent St. John's residents including Lady Constance Maria Harris (wife of the governor) and Lady Helena Squires (wife of the prime minister). Encouraged and supported by government, the ONA recruited four trained nurses in England (with expertise in midwifery) on two-year contracts and assigned one each to the communities of Hodges Cove in Trinity Bay, Rose Blanche on the south coast, Joe Batts Arm on Fogo Island and Daniels Harbour on the Northern Peninsula. The nurse at Daniels Harbour, Myra Grimsley (later Bennett) provided medical care to inhabitants along 200 miles of coastline. Salaries of the ONA nurses were initially provided by a government grant, but the association (and the government) had hoped the program could become self-sufficient and that the regions served might raise half of the nurses' salaries. When it was discovered that most were unable to raise this amount through subscription, a new strategy was devised.
In 1922 Lady Allardyce (wife of the next governor) suggested introducing "knitting circles" to produce goods for sale as a fund raiser, a plan used in the Shetland and Orkney Islands to support the war effort. Volunteer committees were organized to produce sweaters and knitted items. Each family was expected to provide the services of a volunteer worker. Weaving was introduced in some places (e.g. Pools Cove in Fortune Bay) with the aid of the International Grenfell Association (IGA). By these efforts, the industrial component of NONIA was organized and a crafts industry encouraged among outport women.
NONIA recruited nurses, mostly British, who were well-trained in all aspects of medical care, including midwifery, and who were able to work independently of doctors and hospitals. The association supplied them with dressings and drugs and guaranteed them a salary of $900 per annum. Between 1920 and 1934, forty-five NONIA nurses were stationed in twenty-nine outports, treated over 83,000 patients and made 230,000 home visits. Many found the work in the isolated and remote places very arduous and left after one term. In 1935 the Newfoundland Commission of Government established a cottage hospital system to provide medical facilities, nursing services and midwifery training in rural areas. The NONIA nurses became the first nurses employed by the newly-formed system under the Department of Health.
By 1925 the crafts component of NONIA involved 615 workers in 35 communities. After 1935 NONIA continued as a non-profit craft manufacturing and retailing operation. Released from the responsibility of having to subsidize nurses' salaries, NONIA was now able to contribute to the economic self-sufficiency of outport women by paying them on a piecemeal basis for their work. The number of production centres increased and the quality of goods was improved. NONIA goods became well-known for their excellence. In 1956 the association moved into wholesaling. In 1958 a retail store was opened at a prime location on Water Street in St. John's which still operates. In 1965 NONIA merged with the Jubilee Guilds (another crafts organization) and assumed control of their commercial operations. The latter organization then became the Women's Institute.
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Created - April 24, 2013
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- English