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ELSSA promotes and delivers high quality professional skills training for medical, midwifery, nursing and community practitioners in Africa.

Essential Obstetric (Mother) and Newborn Care (EONC) retraining courses for midwives, clinical officers and doctors, address the major causes of maternal and neonatal deaths and morbidity; haemorrhage, sepsis, eclampsia, obstructed labour, miscarriage and new-born resuscitation.

EONC courses are used widely in Africa and have been proven effective. The EONC course uses a mixture of adult learning techniques including lectures, inter-active scenarios, practical skills and drills training.

To date 357 South Sudanese health professionals – 148 doctors and associate clinicians, 209 midwives and 17 midwifery tutors have attended the ELSSA EONC courses, gaining additional knowledge and skills. The value of EONC courses is established beyond question, pre- and post-course assessments show significant increases in knowledge and skills. Increasing the neonatal resuscitation skills will alone save many lives.

This year the team from Northern Ireland will be travelling to Juba, the capital of South Sudan in late September to provide two 5-day courses to doctors, midwives and other allied health professionals from across South Sudan.