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Meath Chronicle, 11th October 2008
Last Friday thousands of schools and offices across the country donned their favourite team's colours in aid of GOAL'S Jersey Day. In preparation for the big fundraising event, volunteer Jamie Macken, from Kells, went to South Sudan to find out how GOAL uses the money it collects to aid the poorest of the poor and discusses life in Malakal, where the scars o Sudan's vicious civil war are slowly starting to heal.
The soil in Upper Nile State, South Sudan, is as black as the night's sky. In many ways the earth itself symbolizes much that is wrong here. Unable to absorb much water, the black cotton soil, as it is known, renders all roads impassable and provides the perfect breeding ground for disease such as malaria when the rains come.
The ongoing border dispute between North and South Sudan has recently been highlighted by insecurity at Abyei which sits not only on the border but on top of vast oil reserves. While Malakal Town might not have oil, strategically it remains a hotspot for insecurity. Close to the border with North Sudan and based on the banks of the river Nile, Malakal is both commercially and strategically important. Under the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005, the North was obliged to hand over control of the town to the Souths Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Only recently and after some heavy fighting did the North fulfil this obligation. As a result many believe if war were to start again, Malakal would be one of the first places to suffer.
For these reasons the people of Malakal and the Upper Nile State live in very difficult conditions. Access to basic services is limited – only 1 percent of people have access to improved sanitation facilities and clean drinking water. As a result infant mortality stands at 348 per 1000 live births and malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections account for over 50% of the disease burden.
But the plight of the people here has not gone unnoticed. After nearly a decade, GOAL has established it's presence in Malakal to such an extent that it recently hanck-d over a Primary Health Care Centre (PHCC) to the Ministry of Health (MoH). "Over the past nine years we have built-up an excellent relationship with the Ministry of Health," says Fanuel Obare, GOAL's regional health manager. In fact the MoH relies heavily on GOAL to provide basic health education and services to thousands of people in the region. We in Ireland might think we know mud, we don't. When the rainy season starts, living here is difficult and working here is near impossible. It is now rainy season in South Sudan. Roads are no longer effective so GOAL must operate by using the Nile and Sobat rivers. It can take up to 4 hours to reach Baliet by boat. A remote muddy village, Baliet is perched on the banks of the equally muddy Sobat river.
Until GOAL established a health centre here, the people of Baliet had no access to health care of any nature. Almost a year in existence and already rooms are full with medicines, women are being trained to become birth assistants and people are being immunized against common disease. Further up the Sobat River, GOAL is reaching remote villages through a network of Primary Health Care Units (PHCU). Slowly people are beginning to realize that their lives are not worthless and that services exisr to help them. It is no wonder the MoH is hugely supportive of GOAL. In these testing times the fledging State apparatus of South Sudan is not exactly awash with resources. GOAL provides crucial Training programmes for many MoH staff. Eventually, as with the health centre in Malakal, GOAL, intends handing over further operations to the MoH. "It is important that we train and educate people about health. This is the only effective method for sustaining health care provision," says Fanuel.
Innovatively GOAL sets about training a network of health workers who can monitor and serve local communities. The perceived
image of white aid-workers from abroad handing out medicines and saving lives is misplaced. COAL hand-picks and trains locals who are much more effective at penetrating remote communities than foreigners could ever be.
Through it's approach GOAL is not only immediately helping the people of South Sudan, it is setting up sustaining programmes that will exist well after it is gone. Not only is it serving the poorest of the poor, GOAL is helping to build a sustainable health care service that will benefit the State itself".
So as the rains arrive and the threat of malaria once again casts its shadow over the people here, let's hope that peace is sustained so that GOAL can continue to give people hope of a brighter future.
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