USAID/OTI Sudan Hot Topics December 2005
Expanding Emergency Health-Care Facility in Juba
The overarching goal of the USAID/OTI Sudan program is to strengthen Sudanese confidence and capacity to address the causes and consequences of political marginalization, violence, and instability within the context of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan.
The OTI/Sudan program focuses on promoting the emergence of responsive and effective civil authorities; providing opportunities for peaceful dialogue within and among communities; fostering the emergence of an active civil society; increasing the availability of quality, independent information; and protecting vulnerable populations from grave human rights violations and related abuses.
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| Staff and patients in the emergency ward at the Juba hospital. |
Juba is the capital of South Sudan, and like elsewhere in Sudan, the impacts of the 21 year civil war are very visible. The city has virtually no running water or electrical grid, and many public service institutions are in dire need of rehabilitation and general improvement.
The Juba Teaching Hospital is an attestation to the steady perseverance of a handful of dedicated Sudanese healthcare professionals who struggled to sustain the health services provided by the hospital, despite the damage caused to the facility and disruptions to the supply of medicines during the war.
The Hospital is a tertiary institution with an in-patient capacity for 500. It also serves as a Nursing Technical Secondary School, midwife training school, and a training facility for medical assistants. While the civil war in Sudan has ended, the hospital is still struggling to meet a rising demand for medical care among Juba residents and those residing in the surrounding areas.
Over 1,500 patients are treated every month in areas including internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, dentistry, ophthalmology, psychiatry, physiotherapy, and diseases that are common to Sudan. The cramped emergency ward, too small to provide adequate space and shelter for the continuous flow of patients, was in critical need of improvement. The U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) provided support to the Directorate of the Ministry of Housing and Construction to expand the facility. Patients will no longer have to endure needlessly long waits before they are treated, and triage and minor treatments will take place indoors, in a safer and more hygienic environment.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Michele Amatangelo, Program Manager, Tel: (202) 712-4275, mamatangelo@usaid.gov
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