South Sudan

Life in South Sudan
While much of the world’s attention toward Sudan has been devoted to the conflict in Darfur, to the north, the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan is arguably as urgent. The south’s two-decade-long civil war with the north claimed 1.5 million lives from fighting, famine, and disease and left four million others homeless. Although a peace accord was reached in 2005, South Sudan remains one of the most underdeveloped areas in the world. Despite the arable land, gold, cotton, oil, and other natural resources, its economic potential remains untapped, leaving many of its people to live without basic infrastructure, health care, education, food, and clean water.

Helping Communities Help Themselves
Bringing Relief
International Medical Corps (IMC) began its work in South Sudan in 1994 - more than 10 years before the peace accord was signed – and helped to reestablish its health care infrastructure. In its early programs, IMC helped to greatly reduce the prevalence of two deadly parasitic diseases: river blindness (onchocerciasis) and sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis).

Today, International Medical Corps delivers health services to nearly half a million South Sudanese, including 95,000 who have returned home after the fighting had subsided. While IMC’s focus in South Sudan continues to be primary and secondary health care services, its programs have also expanded to address sexual and gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS, and other services critical to South Sudan’s recovery, including:
• Primary health care
• Secondary health care, including surgery
• Maternal and child care
• Health promotion
• Nutritional screening and therapeutic and supplemental feeding
• HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, testing, and counseling
• Sexual and gender-based violence prevention
• Water and sanitation

In Kajo Keji County, an area near the Ugandan border, International Medical Corps is currently the only secondary medical support in the region, making it the only health care facility that offers maternal, pediatric, nutritional, and surgical care to the area’s 200,000 residents. To complement these services, IMC also added a new maternity unit within the Kajo Keji Hospital premises that will provide better-equipped delivery facilities for mothers and their babies.

International Medical Corps also identified an alarming prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Sudan, particularly in Tambura County in Western Equatoria. To provide treatment and prevent further transmission of the virus, IMC offers voluntary counseling and testing services, as well as safe-sex education and awareness efforts.

Enabling Self-Reliance
To enhance the sustainability of its programs, International Medical Corps trains Sudanese to fulfill the following roles in their programs:
• Traditional birth attendants to help ensure clean, safe deliveries for South Sudanese and refugee mothers and their babies
• Health care workers able to provide primary health care through IMC-supported health clinics, hospitals, maternity clinics, and health care units, as well as nutritional support
• Community health workers to educate their peers in basic health, such as preventable diseases, including HIV/AIDS

Capacity building is central to all of International Medical Corps’ efforts in South Sudan. By training locals, IMC infuses communities with skilled workers who can provide basic health services, as well as transfer their knowledge onto their peers. In its focus on education, IMC also established and supports a medical training school at Kajo Keji Hospital to increase the number of mid-level health professionals in South Sudan. The school, offering both nursing and midwife programs, works improve public health by making desperately needed medical services available.

In Western Equatoria, International Medical Corps has successfully rehabilitated 21 health facilities in Tambura County, and 20 health facilities in the region’s Yambio County, including the construction of three laboratory rooms, three primary health care facilities, five sexual and gender-based counseling centers, and three resources centers. With local capacity-building in mind, IMC has transferred the Yambio facilities over the Ministry of Health to be managed by the South Sudanese government.

You Can Help Build Change That Lasts
Despite the progress International Medical Corps has made to rebuild, revive, and strengthen its infrastructure, there is still much work that needs to be done to provide the 7.5 million people living in South Sudan what they need to sustain an improved quality of life. The return of Sudanese refugees from neighboring countries continues to place a strain on the region’s limited resources, as many resettle into camps with little or no access to food, water, and basic health services. The population movement also places those in South Sudan at risk of infectious disease, such as the deadly Ebola virus, which has continually put operations in Kajo-Keji on high-alert for an outbreak. With your contribution, IMC will be able to enhance its aid efforts and give South Sudan the support it needs to heal from 20 years of civil war and handle the challenges of its recovery. Click here to help Southern Sudan and other IMC programs worldwide.