Supporting Health, Building Trust in Neglected Region
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Nurses attend to patients in the newly refurbished in-patient ward at Kadugli Hospital. |
USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) recently helped Southern Kordofan State’s main public hospital replace its stained mattresses, rusty surgery supply cabinets, electrical generator, and other basic equipment.
Like other public institutions along the former frontline of Sudan’s north-south civil war, the Kadugli Hospital has been overwhelmed by the flood of returnees coming back to their homeland. Kadugli’s population decreased by an estimated 50 percent during the war; however, tens of thousands have returned. Since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, the miserable conditions at the hospital have become increasingly unacceptable to residents of the state capital. At present, it serves more than 325 patients daily.
The USAID/OTI-funded upgrade helps counter growing disillusionment with the CPA’s slow implementation, which has been particularly palpable among communities in the former rebel-controlled Nuba Mountains – not far from Kadugli. In addition to supplying materials to upgrade the in-patient wards, USAID/OTI provided medical and nursing textbooks and anatomy models. The educational materials are renewing the hospital’s teaching capacity and allowing it to improve the technical knowledge and skills of its 200 staff members.
Support for the upgrade was administered through the Kadugli Hospital Improvement Committee, a voluntary group of concerned citizens that includes community leaders, parliament members, and technicians from the hospital. The committee is intent on enhancing the Ministry of Health’s ability to improve services for the estimated 1.5 million residents of Southern Kordofan. The group identifies problems at the hospital and locates potential sources of funding to address them, and its successes are demonstrating how citizen action can help initiate measures for good governance.
USAID/OTI’s assistance promotes coordinated efforts between government authorities and civil society to provide essential services in Southern Kordofan, thereby countering the local population’s waning confidence in the peace process.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Laura Chinn, Program Manager, Tel: (202) 712-1591, lchinn@usaid.gov
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