ELSSA PROJECT SOUTH SUDAN, ASSESSMENT VISIT – 30 APRIL – 4 MAY 2017
Team – Ms Diane Graham and Dr Paul Weir
BRIEF FACTS
Partnership and a Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between ELSSA, The Ministry of Health, South Sudan and The College of Physicians and Surgeons of South Sudan Post Graduate Medical Education Centre – The ELSSA team had several meetings and productive discussions with Dr Riek Gai Kok the Minister of Health South Sudan. The Minister strongly supported developing a partnership. Dr Riek proposed and was instrumental in producing a Memorandum of Understanding which sets out the Partnership which aims to facilitate training for health staff.
The Assessment team recommends that ELSSA progresses with a plan to provide an EMOC & Helping Babies Breathe programme for November 2017 in Juba. Options to explore training for different specialisms could be included within the travelling team.
The Post Graduate Centre (PGC) – the lecture areas, the library and computer areas have been developed. The PGC would now make a very effective training facility for EMOC and other disciplines. Its function is fully supported by the Minister of Health. As an electricity generator is now available it should be possible to obtain a reliable electricity supply by providing the PGC with funds to obtain fuel e.g. approx.$100 per week.
Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery (JCONAM) is functioning normally and very effectively. In fact, it is also accommodating the displaced nursing school from Kajo-keji, which doubles the number of students.
The Principal of JCONAM, Mme Petronella Wawa, made our team welcome and has made the excellent facilities in JCONAM available in November.
It would be important to ensure that the teaching and training activities are shared appropriately between the PGC and JCONAM. At least one of the EMOC training courses should be run in JCONAM and one in the PGC. In addition the Helping Babies Breathe sessions could be run in JCONAM in parallel with other discipline training activity in the PGC. There are multiple options for joint usage of the two facilities.
Juba and its immediate area is under Government control and so is stable and essentially functioning normally. Day-time travel and transport is essentially normal. Although there is no curfew, the current advice is that it is unwise to travel about the city after dark. During our travels around the city there was no sense of being threatened or vulnerable. There is no inherent threat to Europeans, in general they are perceived as supporting the South Sudan and providing aid.