Lou-Ariik-Health Clinic,South Sudan

BACKGROUND
In 2014, I, Ariik Mawien visited South Sudan after I heard that my grandfather was sick in the village of Lou-Ariik County. During this time, South Sudan was in the midst of its rainy season, which meant that the village was flooded. This significantly restricted the movement of villagers who would have to walk miles in floodwaters to reach their destination. My sick grandfather had to be carried for 10 hours by 15 villagers through floodwaters to the nearest town that had transport to take him to the city for medical attention.

During this period, I was warned not to enter my village due to the disease outbreak from the heavy flooding. Thus, I returned to Australia without having seen my mum or my siblings. Again in 2016, I returned to my village and noted that the health conditions of the villagers remained unchanged. The extreme isolation of the Lou-Ariik village from other towns during the floods makes it difficult for the people have timely access to health provision in emergency situations. This leads to dire situations such as that in early 2017, whereby international charities operating in South Sudan declared a measles outbreak in my village. Many of the villagers lost loved ones, including myself. I lost my uncle and one of my twin nieces. The remaining twin became very sick but I was able to remotely organise transport to my isolated niece who was taken into town to receive medical attention.
Potential contributing factors to this epidemic include: a lack of basic health and sanitation facilities and generally poor basic health literacy from the villagers. There is currently only one primary health care clinic in the entire Lou-Ariik village servicing 40,000 people. However, this clinic operates with no qualified health care professional and in a climate where there is a shortage of medical supplies within the state of Tonj.
After noting an obvious need for a health initiative in the village, I and some of my friends decided to form a charity called: “South Sudanese Health Matters Inc”. The main objective of this charity is to establish a fully equipped health clinic in Lou-Ariik complete with adequate medical supplies and promotion of basic health education to the staff.

Mission:
The mission of South Sudanese Health Matters Inc project is to educate and enrich the overall health and wellbeing of the people in the Lou-Ariik village in South Sudan.

Objectives:
• To build a primary health clinic in the village of Lou-Ariik.
• To ensure that there are adequate medical supplies to run the clinic and that staff have basic general health training.
• To empower and train locals on basic health needs, early preventative health measures and how to control disease outbreaks.
• To educate locals on basic hygiene matters including: hand washing, appropriate disposal of human waste and sterilisation of water.
• To have a focus on maternal, newborn and paediatric healthcare.
• To educate and train traditional midwifes to recognise risks that might require referrals to other health professionals in town.
• To setup sanitary arrangements for village girls.

Goals:
• To establish a bigger clinic in the village of Lou-Ariik.
• To focus on the health of women by sponsoring a program to send sanitary items for the local school girls of Lou-Ariik, South Sudan.
• To raise $100,000 to build a fully operational and resourced health clinic.

Fundraising:
The challenges with improving the health and wellbeing of the villagers in Ariik’s village remains an area that needs to be urgently addressed to prevent subsequent disease outbreaks. We are starting a charity with the plan to raise funds for basic health services for Ariik’s village through: churches, schools and personal contributions. We also hope to raise awareness to the wider community to garner further support for Ariik’s village. This is in honour of Ariik’s father, who died during the South Sudan civil war fighting for the freedom of the South Sudanese people. The resources and time you dedicate to South Sudanese Health Matters Incorporated is much appreciated and acknowledged.