Author Archives: cosv

Fighting malnutrition in Ayod, South Sudan

In Ayod, a County located in Jonglei State -South Sudan, we support the only Primary Health Center that meets the needs of a population of over 150,000 people.

With this project, we strengthens the program launched to fight malnutrition in order to offer people an efficient service of severe and moderate malnutrition cases diagnosis and treatment, with special attention to children under the age of 5 years, lactating women and the most vulnerable groups.

Attention is also given to patients affected by Kala Azar: women and children are particularly in need of special care, to address malnutrition they often suffer.

Thanks to the project, Health Care Workers will be trained to specifically deal with cases of malnutrition and at community level awareness-raising activities will be organized to promote a greater awareness on the importance of breastfeeding and consumption of nutritious foods for the health of children.

Institutional Feeding Programs (IFP) for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Leprosy and Kalazar patients and caretakers

At Ayod Primary Health Center , in Jonglei State, patients hospitalized for diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Kala Azar often lack of access to adequate food and are in need of nutritional support.

Together with Ayod County Health Departments, we started an Institutional Feeding Program at the Primary Health Center provide patients with medical and nutritional support, to save lives of vulnerable groups affected by TB, Kala-azar and other diseases.  Acute and general malnutrition cases affecting children under 5, and pregnant and lactating women are also treated.

In addition, for malnourished children and people suffering from tuberculosis, HIV / AIDS and Kala Azar and not included in treatment programs, the project intervenes with specific actions to improve the effectiveness of care received outside the hospital.

Support to women living in the Ayod County through the involvement of traditional midwives

In South Sudan access to maternal and child health services is very limited: only 48% of pregnant women did at least one ante-natal visit and only 26% of these visits was carried out by skilled health personnel. Attended births by skilled birth attendants are only 10%. The South Sudanese Ministry of Health, with the technical advice from the World Health Organization, has developed a program of maternal and child health that includes training of midwives across the country. Unfortunately, the lack of trained personnel and the limited scope of the Ministry to meet wage costs make this perspective still very far away. It is estimated that it will take about 30 years before rural areas located in the north of the country will be served by these services. Traditional midwives are then considered a resource, in many cases the only one available, and they are informally accepted by the authorities.

The program that COSV implements aims at increasing access to the maternal and child health services existing in Ayod County and improving the technical skills of traditional midwives who work in the County .

Through the involvement of local authorities, community awareness campaigns and information services, information sessions organized by traditional midwives on issues related to reproductive age and maternal and child health and the organization of a training program for traditional midwives , we will improve maternal and child health services for women living in Ayod County rural areas.