Winter 2007-08 Jok and Bol return to their home village:
The only health services in the village in 2008
Jok and Bol returned to their village of Piol for the first time in December 2007. It was a bittersweet reunion with their families, who they had not seen in twenty years. Seeing their mothers, meeting new siblings and being with aging grandparents was exceptionally gratifying. However, they also learned details of family members who had not survived the destruction of their village. The living conditions in the village deeply concerned them. There were no buildings left after the bombing, only a few family tukals (huts) had been re-built. What had been a densely populated area was now long, empty, grassy fields. Families had very little food and there were no schools. Very few in the village could read or write, and only one person in the village had a job. The only health care was provided by a young man who had a second grade education in English. He had a chair and a card table and a small box of malaria medication, aspirin and cough syrup provided by UNICEF.
They returned to Columbus determined to help their family members. They concluded that additional medical services was the most pressing need of the village and brought together a group of friends to help. A steering committee was formed and work began developing plans for a health clinic for the village. Scioto Ridge United Methodist Church adopted the clinic as a mission project. This gave the clinic non-profit organization status (501(c) (3)) and allowed contributions to be tax deductible. Fund raising began and plans for an assessment trip to Southern Sudan were underway.
2010 assessment trip:
 A Clinic built in 2009. The government has not provided salaries for staff or consistent deliveries of medication.
In February 2010, Bol Aweng and Steve Walker, a steering committee member, traveled to Southern Sudan to re-assess the needs in the village and seek support from the Ministry of Health (MOH). They met with MOH officials in Juba the federal capitol, and Bor, the Jonglei state capitol. They also met with the local Twic East County Commissioner and the Local Episcopal Bishop. All acknowledged the need for additional medical services in the area. They said that many people are beginning to move back to the area now that the area is more secure and the Nile River no longer floods the area. A new port is being built on the Nile River which will also bring more development and people to the area. A functional health facility is needed because the nearest one is over 35 miles, and a two day walk from Piol.
Steve and Bol “listened under a tree” to over thirty chiefs, elders, and villagers as they all identified medical services, particularly maternal and child health care, as the greatest need. Mothers and babies are dying during child birth. Many children are dying before age five of preventable diseases.
In May 2009, CARE International built a small medical clinic in the area. The chief reported that it was rarely open and is basically non-functional. The government has not provided salaries for staff and had rarely supplied the clinic with medicine. He would like to have a functional clinic with staff and available medicine and vaccines. Other elders said that an additional building is needed to provide maternal and child health care services. A satellite phone for emergency communication is needed, along with transportation to distant hospitals was also needed. Bol and Steve returned to Columbus even more determined to help provide more medical services to the Piol area.
Columbus Monthly - April 2010 - Lost boys back in Sudan
The suitcase stuffed with supplies was ready for the 6,581-mile trek from Port Columbus to the war-ravaged village of Piol in Sudan. On the journey of many stops, the baggage racked up fees of $250 for excess weight—a reminder of the impracticalities of executing good intentions in a faraway land.
In an age of abundance and prosperity, distribution remains an impediment to addressing the poverty of places such as Piol. This is the burden for Bol Aweng and Steve Walker, who took the overstuffed suitcase. They were on a three-week mission this winter to determine the viability of building a functioning health clinic in Piol. It will not be easy. Black cotton soil dries out hard as rock after the rainy season from April through October. When the rain stops, big cracks in the ground open. There are no paved roads to Piol. Simply getting medicine and supplies there will be a logistical logjam.
For Aweng, the mission is personal. His mother and dozens of family members live in Piol and his desire to change the harsh inequities between his life and theirs in a driving impulse. In 1987, Aweng fled for his life, along with thousands of other young children, during Sudan’s bloody civil war. Only 6 years old, he walked more the 1,000 miles in search of safety, eventually creating a new life and earning a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University (“Lost, but now found” – August 2009).
Befriended by Walker, Aweng, along with his cousin, Jok Dau—a constant companion during their years of displacement as refugees—talked for years about doing something for Piol. In late 2009, the arduous work of doing the seemingly impossible began in earnest. Walker’s church, Scioto Ridge United Methodist Church, adopted the Piol Clinic as a mission project. Donations began pouring in: $17,000 in just a few months, a start toward the $300,000 goal.
In Piol, Walker and Aweng listened to a procession of needs from 30 villagers. Aweng’s mother, Awan, pleaded, “When babies are born, everyone is concerned they might die in the first two years.” Her concerns are not misplaced: In southern Sudan, acute malnutrition is the fate of 32 percent of the children under 5. And one in 10 children dies at birth. Women in Piol deliver babies inside shelters made of sorghum stalks covered with a piece of plastic. Here are no physicians. Midwives with little formal training assist.
The trip brought to light a revelation: a little building, recently constructed by a nonprofit organization in Sudan, was sitting empty. And so the vision is changing. Maybe there’s no need to build a new building. Perhaps it’s better to put a dent in the dismal infant survival rates by training midwives and providing prenatal vitamins.
“We have a lot to figure out,” Walker says. But he remains undeterred. “If we don’t do it, it won’t get done,” he says. “And we can get it done.”
Proposed health services:
This project will address immediate health and wellness needs of the 10,000 people in Piol and the surrounding villages by providing staff salaries and medicine to make the existing clinic functional. Clinic staff will also provide health education and promotion programs about health, hygiene, nutrition and maternal and child health. The clinic will provide emergency transportation when patients must be referred to distant hospitals. This project will add electric power to the facility which will enable refrigeration of vaccines for immunizations of children and adults. An additional building will be constructed as a maternal and child health care unit. This unit will enable expectant mothers to deliver their babies under medical supervision and provide a ward for expectant mother experiencing unexpected problems prior to delivery. This building would also provide a space for child health care. Medical training will be provided to build the capacity of Sudanese staff to provide additional medical services in this expanded clinic. Currently there is no means of communication with the outside world. A satellite phone and internet capability would be installed for urgent calls for help when referral to a hospital is needed.
Health Facts on Sudan:
Children’s health issues:
- Southern Sudan has the highest child mortality rate in the world
- One in five children do not live to age five
- Endemic child malnutrition:
- 33% of children under five are underweight
- 13% of children under five are severely underweight
- 22% of children under five are moderately underweight
- 7% of children under five are severely wasting
- Only 17% of children under five are fully immunized
Expectant Mother’s health issues:
- Maternal mortality rate: 2054/100,000 Live births (one of the highest in the world)
- Only 23% of expectant mothers receive antenatal care from a skilled health professional.
- 14% deliver in a health institution
- 10% are cared for by a skilled health professional
- Only 32% of mothers receive at least 2 doses of tetanus toxiod vaccine during pregnancy
Other health issues:
Less than 48% have improved drinking water
Only 6.4% of population uses sanitary means of excretion disposal
Annual incidence of TB is 325/100,000 (among the highest in the world)
Less than 25% have access to health care
Major diseases: Malaria, Diarrhea, Acute Respiratory Infections, Guinea worm disease (Southern Sudan has 80% of global case load) and Tuberculosis.
*Data from: Ministry of Health, Government of Southern Sudan , Basic Package on Health and Nutrition Services for Southern Sudan, January 2009, and: Sudanese Household Survey 2006
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