Posts tagged South Sudan

When I get to the hospital, the patient is prepared for the operating theatre, and just waiting for me to evaluate her. She is 3cm dilated – which is very early in labor – and yet her contractions have stopped. The fetal head is so high up in the pelvis that the midwife’s fingers can barely touch it – a bad sign.

Veronica Ades is an obstetrician-gynecologist on her first MSF mission in Aweil, South Sudan. She has not yet mastered the art of the pit latrine.

Read more from her blog.

South Sudan: Aid Needed Before the Rains Start

Ninety-thousand refugees fleeing conflict have taken refuge in the camps of Jamam and Doro. Aid is desperately needed before the rainy season complicates access to the camps.

Our Alert newsletter for spring 2012 is now available online. While MSF has been unable to work directly in Syria, it has collected testimonies from wounded patients treated outside the country and from doctors inside Syria. These testimonies point to a coordinated crackdown on the provision of urgent medical care for people wounded in Syria’s ongoing violence. Also in this issue: Two MSF field journals from South Sudan, an interview with Emmanuel Baron, executive director of Epicentre, and photos from MSF’s trauma center in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Cover photo: Afghanistan 2012 © Michael Goldfarb/MSF

Our Alert newsletter for spring 2012 is now available online.

While MSF has been unable to work directly in Syria, it has collected testimonies from wounded patients treated outside the country and from doctors inside Syria. These testimonies point to a coordinated crackdown on the provision of urgent medical care for people wounded in Syria’s ongoing violence.

Also in this issue: Two MSF field journals from South Sudan, an interview with Emmanuel Baron, executive director of Epicentre, and photos from MSF’s trauma center in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Cover photo: Afghanistan 2012 © Michael Goldfarb/MSF

Veronica Ades, an obstetrician-gynecologist from New York City, is just back from her first MSF mission. She’s giving our staff a presentation on the MSF project in Aweil, South Sudan, where our teams have assisted in reducing the maternal death rate to 0.6%. With a rate of 14% in southern Sudan, the impact of the program and the importance of having women deliver in the hospital has been made abundantly clear. You can read Veronica’s blog about her time working with MSF in South Sudan.

Veronica Ades, an obstetrician-gynecologist from New York City, is just back from her first MSF mission. She’s giving our staff a presentation on the MSF project in Aweil, South Sudan, where our teams have assisted in reducing the maternal death rate to 0.6%. With a rate of 14% in southern Sudan, the impact of the program and the importance of having women deliver in the hospital has been made abundantly clear.

You can read Veronica’s blog about her time working with MSF in South Sudan.

The baby is cleaned off, examined and wrapped in a towel. Katie, the Australian midwife, brings the baby to the mother’s face so that she can see her while we are finishing the c-section. The mother makes no expression, but tears roll down her face when she sees her healthy baby.
MSF obstetrician-gynecologist, Veronica Ades, tells the story of delivering a baby for a patient who has already lost her first two and how women’s reactions to these traumatic experiences in South Sudan differ so massively from those in the U.S., where Veronica is from.
MSF Blogs: Yin A Mat Po? (Are You Happy?) The woman came to us with no living children. She had been pregnant twice before, but both pregnancies resulted in stillbirths. In the first pregnancy, she had labored for days, and the baby died during labor, but delivered vaginally. In the second pregnancy, she had pushed and pushed, but the baby did not deliver. A C-section was done, but the baby died anyway. I cannot imagine what that must feel like. In the United States, a stillbirth at term is a huge event. Privacy is paramount. A subtle sign is placed on the patient’s door so that the staff knows not to enter unnecessarily. A sympathetic nurse is chosen, one who will comfort the patient. Aggressive pain control is offered, because pain can only make grief worse. And the woman carries that loss with her for the rest of her life.In South Sudan, it is unusual for a woman not to have lost at least one child. They die in childbirth, or they die later of malnutrition, malaria, infection, unexplained illness. I have seen women who have delivered seven children, only to have three of them die; or delivered four children but having only one living child. When a woman comes to us, the first question asked is “How many children have you had?” The second question is, “How many are alive?” Read the rest of the blog from Veronica Ades here.Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Lisa Jones MSF OB-GYN Veronica Ades examines a patient.

MSF Blogs: Yin A Mat Po? (Are You Happy?)

The woman came to us with no living children. She had been pregnant twice before, but both pregnancies resulted in stillbirths. In the first pregnancy, she had labored for days, and the baby died during labor, but delivered vaginally. In the second pregnancy, she had pushed and pushed, but the baby did not deliver. A C-section was done, but the baby died anyway.

I cannot imagine what that must feel like. In the United States, a stillbirth at term is a huge event. Privacy is paramount. A subtle sign is placed on the patient’s door so that the staff knows not to enter unnecessarily. A sympathetic nurse is chosen, one who will comfort the patient. Aggressive pain control is offered, because pain can only make grief worse. And the woman carries that loss with her for the rest of her life.

In South Sudan, it is unusual for a woman not to have lost at least one child. They die in childbirth, or they die later of malnutrition, malaria, infection, unexplained illness. I have seen women who have delivered seven children, only to have three of them die; or delivered four children but having only one living child. When a woman comes to us, the first question asked is “How many children have you had?” The second question is, “How many are alive?”

Read the rest of the blog from Veronica Ades here.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Lisa Jones MSF OB-GYN Veronica Ades examines a patient.

Emergency Response Scaled Up as Violence Continues in South Sudan Tensions and hostilities continue unabated between South Sudan and its northern neighbor Sudan, and MSF is scaling up its emergency response by treating people injured in the latest violence, giving material and staff support to local clinics and hospitals, and providing relief to people displaced by the fighting. MSF currently provides life-saving surgery in Aweil and Agok for patients wounded in the recent violence. The organization also reinforced its surgical response capacity in case of a general degradation of the situation. MSF has also donated medicines and medical supplies to local hospitals in Abiemnom and Bentiu in Unity State, both of which have received high numbers of wounded from the recent clashes. Two of MSF’s medical staff have been temporarily seconded to support the Bentiu hospital.Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF Refugees from Blue Nile State in Jamam refugee camp

Emergency Response Scaled Up as Violence Continues in South Sudan

Tensions and hostilities continue unabated between South Sudan and its northern neighbor Sudan, and MSF is scaling up its emergency response by treating people injured in the latest violence, giving material and staff support to local clinics and hospitals, and providing relief to people displaced by the fighting.

MSF currently provides life-saving surgery in Aweil and Agok for patients wounded in the recent violence. The organization also reinforced its surgical response capacity in case of a general degradation of the situation.

MSF has also donated medicines and medical supplies to local hospitals in Abiemnom and Bentiu in Unity State, both of which have received high numbers of wounded from the recent clashes. Two of MSF’s medical staff have been temporarily seconded to support the Bentiu hospital.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF Refugees from Blue Nile State in Jamam refugee camp

It is only in this moment that I start to process the injustice of this. She is 18 years old. She was having her first baby. That is what is killing her.
Veronica Ades, an obstetrician-gynecologist on her first MSF mission in Aweil, South Sudan.

Read more from her blog post.
South Sudan: MSF Assists Patients Wounded in Aerial Bombardment in Unity StateMSF is treating patients wounded on April 10 during aerial bombardments of Abiemnom in South Sudan’s Unity State. Violence has rocked the region over the past few weeks and the situation remains extremely volatile.MSF’s hospital in Agok, 36 kilometers (about 22 miles) east of Abiemnom, received four wounded patients on the afternoon of April 10—a woman and three children—all of whom had severe open wounds requiring multiple surgeries. All four have now been stabilized. The MSF team in Agok has also donated drugs and equipment to the Ministry of Health’s medical center in Abiemnom to support the treatment of an additional 40 wounded patients there. “In this region the population is on the frontline,” says Emmanuel Roussier, MSF’s head of mission in Juba. “Emergencies are unfolding one after another. Our teams are doing their best to respond to people’s most urgent needs—whether for food, shelter, or health care. Our constant concern is to provide comprehensive secondary health care and life saving activities to all the communities in the region.”South Sudan 2011 © Corentin Fohlen Internally displaced refugees who fled the fighting in the Abyei region carry relief items distributed by MSF.

South Sudan: MSF Assists Patients Wounded in Aerial Bombardment in Unity State

MSF is treating patients wounded on April 10 during aerial bombardments of Abiemnom in South Sudan’s Unity State. Violence has rocked the region over the past few weeks and the situation remains extremely volatile.

MSF’s hospital in Agok, 36 kilometers (about 22 miles) east of Abiemnom, received four wounded patients on the afternoon of April 10—a woman and three children—all of whom had severe open wounds requiring multiple surgeries. All four have now been stabilized. The MSF team in Agok has also donated drugs and equipment to the Ministry of Health’s medical center in Abiemnom to support the treatment of an additional 40 wounded patients there.

“In this region the population is on the frontline,” says Emmanuel Roussier, MSF’s head of mission in Juba. “Emergencies are unfolding one after another. Our teams are doing their best to respond to people’s most urgent needs—whether for food, shelter, or health care. Our constant concern is to provide comprehensive secondary health care and life saving activities to all the communities in the region.”

South Sudan 2011 © Corentin Fohlen
Internally displaced refugees who fled the fighting in the Abyei region carry relief items distributed by MSF.

South Sudan: Time Is Running Out

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is working in Doro and Jamam refugee camps in South Sudan. About 80,000 refugees have fled to the camps to escape ongoing violence in Blue Nile state, and MSF—working against the clock—is trying to help as many as possible before seasonal rains at the end of the month make the area inaccessible. Dr. Kirrily de Polnay talks about her work in the camps and warns that aid organizations need to urgently accelerate their activities if disaster is to be avoided

“It’s Really a Delicate Balance”: An MSF Doctor in the Jamam Refugee Camp Dr. Kirrily de Polnay is working with Doctors Without Borders in the Jamam camp in an isolated region of South Sudan, where thousands of refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State are currently seeking sanctuary and the coming rainy season threatens to make delivering humanitarian aid even more challenging than it is now. Here, she talks about the situation in Jamam: “We have so many cases of diarrhea and you’re trying to explain to them how to make the ORS [Oral Rehydration Solution] and they don’t have anything to make it in. Even I can find it hard to judge exactly half a sachet, and you tell them, “whatever you do you must drink water, you must drink the ORS we give you.” And they nod and say yes, but you know that they do not have enough water to really do that. They’ve only got a few liters a day. So what we are prescribing, they don’t have. And so you feel like you are trying to put a tiny plaster on a big hemorrhage.”Photo:South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF MSF doctor Kirrily de Polnay treating a child in the ‘emergency room’ of MSF’s clinic in Jamam refugee camp.

“It’s Really a Delicate Balance”: An MSF Doctor in the Jamam Refugee Camp

Dr. Kirrily de Polnay is working with Doctors Without Borders in the Jamam camp in an isolated region of South Sudan, where thousands of refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State are currently seeking sanctuary and the coming rainy season threatens to make delivering humanitarian aid even more challenging than it is now. Here, she talks about the situation in Jamam:

“We have so many cases of diarrhea and you’re trying to explain to them how to make the ORS [Oral Rehydration Solution] and they don’t have anything to make it in. Even I can find it hard to judge exactly half a sachet, and you tell them, “whatever you do you must drink water, you must drink the ORS we give you.” And they nod and say yes, but you know that they do not have enough water to really do that. They’ve only got a few liters a day. So what we are prescribing, they don’t have. And so you feel like you are trying to put a tiny plaster on a big hemorrhage.”

Photo:South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF
MSF doctor Kirrily de Polnay treating a child in the ‘emergency room’ of MSF’s clinic in Jamam refugee camp.

We are safe from bombs here across the border. And now that we are no longer running to save our lives, we can think about our hunger, about all the necessities like soap for washing, clothes and food. For now, I have no ideas for the future, just sending the children to school and working to make sure I can feed them.
Young woman in Jamam who crossed the border only a few days after giving birth

Since November, some 80,000 refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State have sought shelter in two camps located in a remote and barren region of South Sudan where humanitarian organizations are confronting massive logistic challenges to access and assist them. Doctors Without Borders has been running a substantial emergency response, focusing on providing medical care in the camps and in mobile clinics to villages along the border with Sudan, where several thousand more refugees are gathered.
“Now There is Nothing”: Testimonies from Refugees in South Sudan Amani, who brought her daughter Harrap to the field hospital in Jamam for treatment: “The rainy season is coming. And the place we are living, it looks like it will be in the water. We need to find another place. I know this soil, and when the rains come this will be a swamp, this will be filled with water… This is a bad place. My daughter has diarrhea with blood. This problem has been going on for a long time now. It first started in the middle of the fighting. So now she has been ill for a long time. When the fighting started, there was no way for us to get treatment. We were just running, running, always running, until we got here. This is the first time I have been able to get some medical care for her. MSF is the first treatment we have got.”Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum A mother with her child in the Doro refugee camp in South Sudan.

“Now There is Nothing”: Testimonies from Refugees in South Sudan

 Amani, who brought her daughter Harrap to the field hospital in Jamam for treatment:

“The rainy season is coming. And the place we are living, it looks like it will be in the water. We need to find another place. I know this soil, and when the rains come this will be a swamp, this will be filled with water… This is a bad place.

My daughter has diarrhea with blood. This problem has been going on for a long time now. It first started in the middle of the fighting. So now she has been ill for a long time. When the fighting started, there was no way for us to get treatment. We were just running, running, always running, until we got here. This is the first time I have been able to get some medical care for her. MSF is the first treatment we have got.”

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum
A mother with her child in the Doro refugee camp in South Sudan.

Urgent Humanitarian Aid Needed For 80,000 Sudanese Refugees Driven by fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, tens of thousands of refugees now in camps across the border in South Sudan need assistance before the looming rainy season renders the area impassable. “The refugees are left almost completely reliant on humanitarian assistance because the area has scarce water and food,” said Julien Matter, MSF emergency coordinator. “The sheer number of refugees fleeing here has grown far beyond anything anyone anticipated. Providing the bare survival essentials now, and over the coming rainy season, will be a serious challenge in such a remote place,” he said. Newly arriving refugees speak of ongoing bombing and fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. While people have sought safety in the Doro and Jamam camps, they have encountered a harsh environment where their ability to survive is stretched to the breaking point.Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF Refugees in the Jamam camp in South Sudan, after having fled fighting and bombing in Blue Nile State across the border in Sudan.

Urgent Humanitarian Aid Needed For 80,000 Sudanese Refugees

Driven by fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, tens of thousands of refugees now in camps across the border in South Sudan need assistance before the looming rainy season renders the area impassable.

“The refugees are left almost completely reliant on humanitarian assistance because the area has scarce water and food,” said Julien Matter, MSF emergency coordinator. “The sheer number of refugees fleeing here has grown far beyond anything anyone anticipated. Providing the bare survival essentials now, and over the coming rainy season, will be a serious challenge in such a remote place,” he said.

Newly arriving refugees speak of ongoing bombing and fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. While people have sought safety in the Doro and Jamam camps, they have encountered a harsh environment where their ability to survive is stretched to the breaking point.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF
Refugees in the Jamam camp in South Sudan, after having fled fighting and bombing in Blue Nile State across the border in Sudan.