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Child survival

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Engaging fathers to promote exclusive breastfeeding of children up to 6 months

Yambio County, South Sudan – “In the last few years I have been involving many of my friends and neighbours to encourage and support their spouses for proper feeding practices of their children,” says Michael Edward, a 38-year-old father of six in Yambio County. “And I think that it has helped in the house because...

23 February 2022

Support essential health care for all

South Sudan has one of the highest under-five mortality rates in the world. Over 38,000 children under five die annually, mostly from preventable illnesses. Malaria, diarrhoea, and pneumonia are responsible for over 75 per cent of these deaths. Additionally, high levels of malnutrition also contribute to the high ...

12 November 2019

Pneumonia is killing one child every hour in South Sudan

JUBA, November 12, 2019 — Pneumonia claimed the lives of 7,640 children under the age of five in South Sudan last year, or one child every hour, according to a new UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality analysis. Save the Children, UNICEF and the Every Breath Counts coalition are calling for the South Sudanese Government to urgently commit new…

15 October 2019

Eat-Play-Love

Aweil, South Sudan – Nine-month-old Akot is using his entire arm to stir the pot, which is almost half his size and filled with peeled peanuts – or ground nuts as they are called in South Sudan. He makes a kick and dives into the pot filling his mouth with nuts. Nowadays, the world is an exciting place for Akot. E...

The Boma Health Initiative

South Sudan has continued to suffer some of the worst health indicators globally with an under-five mortality rate of 96 deaths per 1,000 live births and with 75 per cent of child deaths due to the preventable diseases of diarrhea, malaria, and pneumonia. In addition, the maternal mortality rate is 789 per 100,000 live births with less than 8 per cent of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants. This is mostly due to limited access to heal...

29 January 2019

Malnutrition remains a threat to the survival of children in South Sudan

Despite a favorable harvest in South Sudan 2018, food insecurity remains at alarming levels. An estimated 43 per cent of the population were forecast to be severely food insecure by the end of last year, with more than one million children acutely malnourished in 2018 including a quarter of a million children seve...

29 January 2019

The three-month challenge

The chunk of land, formerly known as Jonglei and Upper Nile, stretching from the east side of South Sudan, almost all the way to the middle and then north, is as big as Uganda – but the lack of roads makes it difficult to move around. The seasonal rain turns the few roads into muddy tracks, holding every vehicle a...

05 December 2018

An Ebola survivor’s mission to prevent an outbreak

“Ebola kills you know, and no one knows that better than me.” – says Dominic Sarawasi with conviction. Dominic’s close contact with the deadly disease has not turned him into a beaten man, rather a determined one. His nightmare started on a normal day at the hospital in Yambio, in the south west of the country, in...

15 October 2018

Beads and barefoot nurses

NAKWA, South Sudan, 15 October 2018 – Slowly passing a string of large white beads through her fingers, healthcare worker Lokale Marko counts the breaths of the six-month old girl held in front of her. At each breath, another bead slides through her fingers. Focusing hard, the South Sudanese health worker stops on...

Pulling children out of hunger, disease and death in war-torn South Sudan

WAU, South Sudan – Frightful murmurs spread in early 2016 that the escalating violence across South Sudan might soon reach their neighbourhood in Besselia, Western Bahr El Ghazal. Before they could grasp the intensity of the conflict, armed groups and cattle keepers were moving in, occupying farm communities ...