Japan boosts Ministry of Health with USD 4 million
The supplies donated by the Japanese Government include vaccines, injection materials and cold chain equipment mainly to support immunisations and maternity care. It also includes special food for severely malnourished children, mosquito nets and anti-malarial drugs.
The project is a symbolic project, as it focuses on the most vulnerable.”
During the handover on Thursday, July 4, the Japanese Charge D’Affaires in South Sudan Takeshi Akamatsu said the donation is part of the overall efforts to boost South Sudan’s health sector.
The project is a symbolic project, as it focuses on the most vulnerable including woman and children with health risk such as yellow fever, malaria and nutritional inefficiencies,” he explained.
The Undersecretary of the national Ministry of Health Makur Koriom remarked that more health workers need to be trained, allowing to improve the staffing in the country’s various health units.
Koriom said that the ministry’s budget remains strained since the austerity measures were introduced in 2012, not allowing the ministry to recruit new staff. He added that he hopes once medical workers have graduated from the various health training institutes, more staff can be employed.
UNICEF’s Yasmin Haque (left) during the handover on July 4.
Last year we trained 10 trainers who are now training more nurses at the Juba School of Nursing and we hope they will continue to produce more nurses and midwives,” Koriom said.
UNICEF South Sudan Director Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque said that UNICEF is coordinating their efforts with the government to reach hundreds of thousands of children who remain malnourished.
She lauded the Japanese Government for supporting UNICEF’s humanitarian work in South Sudan with USD 13 million since 2012. Through this generous contribution, UNICEF together with the Ministry of Health and partners continue to make a difference in the lives of emergency affected people,” she said.
