Building a healthier and more equitable future
Shining a Light on UNICEF's Life-Saving Health Programme in Maban County
In the heart of Maban County – a remote part of Upper Nile State, UNICEF is seeking to transform the lives of thousands of children and families through its health and nutrition programming and humanitarian response.
Through COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness (CERHSP) – a World Bank-funded project, UNICEF and its partners support 20 health facilities in a step to strengthen and consolidate health service delivery for the refugee and host communities. Maban hosts a large refugee camp supporting families escaping conflict in Sudan and other areas in the region.
With 112 health facilities supported under the project in Upper Nile State, the program assisted almost 270,000 health consultations for women and children in 2023. Of these consultations, nearly 170,000 were children under the age of five, and over 67,000 were performed by Boma Health Workers – at the community level. Additionally, in Upper Nile, over 56,000 children received vaccinations, more than 50,500 women received antenatal care services, and 33,500 babies were delivered safely by skilled birth attendants.
Bunj Primary Health Care Center in Maban County is one of the facilities benefiting from the project. The center is equipped with essential medical supplies, enabling access to quality healthcare for children and their families, providing services from vaccinations to preventive healthcare.
Roda Daniel, a 30-year-old mother of four who had brought her one-month-old child for immunizations, emphasized the facility's significance throughout her pregnancy, citing how the facility's health briefings gave her important knowledge.
“My two kids were vaccinated here, it’s only one kid that was vaccinated in the main hospital. I learned the importance of child vaccination in a training. Secondly, when you are pregnant, and you go to the hospital, they teach you a lot in addition to receiving care, I learned a lot from them” Roda said.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a UNICEF partner, oversees Bunj Hospital - a major hub of medical care in Maban County that offers comprehensive services from emergency assistance to specialist care.
UNICEF's commitment to enhancing health outcomes for all children is demonstrated through Bunj Hospital, according to Dr. Winston Wagwe – IRC Health Manager who leads a team of 72 staff employed at the hospital. He stressed that the successful handling of health and nutrition cases in all sections across the facility has been made possible by the center's existence.
“Without the support from UNICEF and World Bank through Relief International, the community would really be negatively affected. When you look at the casing point this year, we had managed 13,000 cases of malaria, some of them severe. If the facility wasn’t here, we would have had a lot of deaths in the community” Winston said.
Winston's testament was backed by Maban Town resident who recently revealed her experience after a successful C-section. Zanab Gufah – a 34-year-old mother of 11 children expressed uncertainty about surviving the procedure and witnessing her newborn baby.
“There is pain beneath my lower stomach, my legs are paining, the pain doesn’t allow me to take porridge and other normal food. I think I would have died if I didn’t come here, the situation I was in was horrible but when this baby was operated, I became so relieved,” Zanab said.
A few kilometers outside of Maban Town is Doro Primary Health Care Center, which is part of the Doro Refugee Settlement. With the help of UNICEF, over 80,000 people — the majority of whom are refugees now access comprehensive health and nutrition services.
Managed by Relief International (RI), the facility's dedicated healthcare professionals ensure the health of expectant mothers and their newborns by providing sufficient services like nutritional screenings, postnatal care, and prenatal care.
The center's interventions, according to Dr. Ochongodok John, the facility's medical officer, have resulted in a decrease in the County's measles case count after an outbreak in mid 2023, demonstrating the value of taking preventative actions such as immunisation to control the spread.
"In June, this inpatient ward was full of over 200 cases admitted at the facility. We had to send ten specimens to Juba National Public Health Laboratory for testing, and nine were confirmed positive for Measles.
“Those children affected were mostly refugees/returnees and with less from the host community. With our interventions, the cases have been reduced. So far, we have two cases in the isolation ward. But the majority have been treated and discharged,” Dr. John said.
According to Dr. Tolbert Unziku Tolbert, UNICEF Health Specialist, UNICEF is committed to making a real difference in the Greater Upper Nile Region and beyond because every child deserves a healthy start.
“That is why our dedicated staff and partners work around the clock to ensure no child or mother, regardless of gender, age, or ethnicity, is left unattended to in our facilities and at the communities and with the extra support through the Boma Health Initiative,” said Dr Tolbert.
