South Sudan Maternity & Paediatrics Ward

Hi there,

We’re Kiwi doctors who for the last 3 years have been helping run a Maternal Child Health Program in South Sudan.

South Sudan has one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. It has very few trained health care workers per capita, less than 50% of South Sudanese live within walking distance of a health facility, and existing facilities struggle to maintain steady supplies of drugs to a lack of roads. Many of our patients walk for 2-3 days with their children in the blazing sun to receive medical care!

In just 10 weeks IDAT are opening our new Maternal Child Health Clinic which will greatly enlarge our capacity to help the children and pregnant mothers of Tonj. Once this is opened we would like to start construction of a Maternity & Paediatrics Ward, to allow us to provide inpatient care to the sickest of our patients.

An engineer from NZ has drawn up plans for a 20 bed ward split into a 12 bed paediatric unit, and a 8 bed maternity unit. The projected cost is $40,000, and construction is estimated to take 5 months.

Our current 8 bed ward which has reached the end of it’s lifespan is usually full, and often we have patients on mattresses on the floor due to a lack of bed space. We believe that over the coming decades this new ward will help save thousands of lives of some of the most vulnerable mothers and children in the world.

We have already had $22,000 donated by generous Kiwis & Aussies (thank you!!), but still need another $18,000 to get us there. And you can help make it happen!

Thanks for your generous support for the people of South Sudan

Jono & Destinee Macleod.