Outstanding among nursing organizations serving isolated communities across Canada, NONIA brought professional health care to Newfoundlands outports. Women reformers founded the organization in 1924 using the production and sale of handicrafts to finance their work. Besides training lay midwives and delivering babies, British-trained nurse- midwives pulled teeth and transported the sick along hazardous routes to distant hospitals. Although its nursing service was incorporated into Newfoundlands health system in 1934, NONIA remains a leader in the promotion of handicraft production.