SSD 17- SUPPORT TO WAU HOSPITAL

Project Location

The St. Daniel Comboni Hospital is located in Wau, seat of the diocese and capital of the State of the same name, in South Sudan. It is an important institution for the region, belonging to the diocese and directed by the Comboni Missionary Sisters, with the help of other religious sisters from the beginning. As Comboni Missionary Sisters we are present with two sisters as medical Doctor, one sister in administration as CEO and one sister as Nurse Midwife. To this religious staff must be added to the local lay staff. Some volunteers offer their help occasionally and on an individual basis, because the instability and insecurity in the country make it difficult to volunteer for long periods. We always hope for improved security and the possibility of collaboration with other volunteers and specialists, at least for special missions. We serve an annual average of 60,000 sick people in the outpatient section and more than 5,000 admitted to hospital services. To these must be added contacts for prevention, particularly antenatal visits (ANC), and vaccinations.

Our priority is mothers and children, so we give special attention to the pre-natal clinic, maternity and paediatrics, especially for children under five. We ensure a 24-hour presence in these departments and accessibility to emergency caesarean sections, while other operations are performed during working days and only during the day.

We cooperate with the local Ministry of Health and in particular with the Government Hospital in Wau and other Hospitals and Dispensaries in the region, which very often refer patients to us who cannot be served due to lack of qualified personnel or material/medicines, or other reasons for malfunctioning. We believe in the continuous training of our staff to achieve adequate professionalism and an appropriate attitude towards patients, which is why we organise internal courses for the different categories of staff and try to send at least two people each year for specific specialisation courses. We are happy about Sr. Marianna's return in January 2023, after her specialisation in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Given our priority for maternity, it gives undoubtedly an extra boost for the hospital. Although it is still difficult to find trained staff in South Sudan in sufficient numbers, we have nevertheless managed to reduce the number of nurses, midwives and lab technicians from neighbouring countries, which is now limited to religious staff only. It has been a long road, but we are proud of this, because it means that our presence and collaboration with the School of Nursing and Midwifery (CHTI) has borne good fruit.

We continue to sponsor young people (men and women) each year to study at CHTI in order to build our own nursing corps. This is not without difficulties and challenges, the first of which is the retention of these staff compared to NGOs, which also pay salaries in US dollars to locals.
The hospital is also the main place of practical training for CHTI nursing and midwifery students. The orthopaedic rehabilitation service, which had been interrupted as of June 2019 due to the physiotherapist leaving, resumed during 2022 with a new physiotherapist, who is well committed and enthusiastic.

Connected to this service is also the provision of orthopaedic devices, especially paediatric ones, which can facilitate recovery. They are manufactured in Juba at the La Nostra Famiglia Institute (USRATUNA) and supplied to us according to the needs indicated by the physiotherapist. We bear the cost of transporting this material, which by necessity has to be done by air. The reorganisation of the administration department continues, headed by a Comboni Sister from 2019, which is turning into a clear and well-defined structure, entrusting the local staff in this department with everything they are responsible for and can take on, without endangering the hospital's assets or themselves, due to the strong pressures they receive from the families and the clan, especially in a situation that is still conflictual.
Since 2016, we have been buying almost all the drugs and most of the materials in Juba, from some Pharmaceutical Companies that have proven to be quite reliable and import mainly from Kenya. This has made a lot of things easier for us and saves us in terms of time, bureaucracy and money, but the cost of Juba-Wau transport still remains very high, which for safety and conservation reasons has to be done mainly by plane. In addition, some supplies of special equipment and spare parts have to be ordered outside the country and mostly in Italy.
In 2022 we installed a new solar panel system, much more powerful than the previous one, which allows us to run the entire hospital, day and night, with minimal intervention of the generator in case of too much energy consumption, as is the case when all the oxygen machines and incubators for premature babies are running at the same time.

Project descritpion

The devaluation of the local currency continues to worsen and has reached very high peaks with constant price increases for all basic necessities including medicines. Even before, many families could not afford even the smallest expense that we ask for as a contribution (here, as in most parts of Africa, there is no health insurance), now there are many more for whom a health bill is unsustainable. Not wanting to deny anyone the opportunity of treatment because they are poor, and indeed wanting to meet everyone's needs, with the help of Providence, we have kept the prices of services very low, both for outpatients and for hospitalisations and operations. However, this entails the need to find new funding because we are no longer able to cover current expenses with our local income.
This project is intended to subsidise the purchase of medicines and consumable medical supplies for one year, and to contribute to routine maintenance costs, expenses which cannot be covered in full by the contribution requested from patients. There are more than 60,000 patients, including outpatients and inpatients, who are generally cared for in one year, plus almost 20,000 contacts for preventive services.

Objectives

To offer a qualified and accessible service to the population in the preventive and curative fields, in particular by contributing to the reduction of the very high maternal and child mortality and morbidity related to childbirth (it is the highest in the world).
To provide a referral facility for practical hospital placements for nursing and midwifery students preparing for the Catholic Training Institute in Wau (CHTI).
Integrate into the staff some of the CHTI students as graduate nurses and midwives who offer them a job and the sick a qualified service

Beneficiaries

Direct: more than 60,000 sick people are treated annually in our outpatient clinics and wards, with special attention to mothers and children.

Indirect: the families of the sick and the community of this area (about 500,000 people)

Referent sisters for the project: Sr Marianna Santin and Sr Maria Martinelli