Central Equatoria health minister calls for investment

October 7, 2011 (MOROBO) – Central Equatoria state’s health minster has called on donors to fund the building of more health centres in South Sudan to combat the new country’s poor health care provision.

Speaking at the opening of a new health department office in Morobo County Dr. Emmanuel Ijja, said that lack of funds was restricting the development of South Sudan’s health care system.

“We want to build and strengthen our health system but we don’t have the money, we call upon our partners to continue supporting us in developing the health sector”, said Ijja.

The Multi Donor Trust Fund-Delivery of Basic Package of Health services (MDTF-BPHS) project is funded by the World Bank and the South Sudan government. The construction was carried out by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), who run a similar project in Eastern Equatoria state.

Mororobo county’s medical officer Ade Emmanuel said that the office has been provided with a Toyota car, motorcycles, solar panels, internet equipment, long range radio communication equipment, office furniture and computers for the delivery of health services in the County.

However he said the Morobo County health department is understaffed because of the current shortage of qualified health staff in the Country. He called upon the ministry of health to seek immediate solutions to the issue so that health services could be delivered to all parts of the county.

Dr. Mamude Dinkiye the team leader for the project in Central Equatoria state said that the coverage of vaccines in Morobo has increased since the start of the project in 2009 but more work needs to be done in order to reduce the high mortality rate in the state.

Jan Ledang, NPA’s country director said his agency hopes basic services reach all the people of South Sudan. He said building the new nation is a big task that requires the participation of everybody, including traditional chiefs.

NPA first intervened in South Sudan in 1985 with the aim of helping the South Sudanese during the Sudan’s second civil war (1983-2005). The agency currently implements five programs in the country and employ close to 1,000 staff in South Sudan.

The organisation say they have started to focus on agricultural programmes as they believe they are essential to the build the economy of new nation of South Sudan.

(ST)