Vehicle Donation Supports South Sudan’s COVID-19 Response

ADF STAFF

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has donated two vehicles to support South Sudan’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Donated to the Ministry of Health through the World Health Organization (WHO), the cars will help public health workers in Juba coordinate the incident management system and deploy rapid response teams to investigate COVID-19 outbreaks. The vehicles were donated September 1 as the country’s second phase of the pandemic was ending.

“The vehicles will facilitate the multidisciplinary and national response in at-risk and affected populations, and thus help save more lives and tackle the negative impacts of COVID-19,” Minister of Health Elizabeth Achuei said in a WHO news release. “I wish to thank the African Development Bank and WHO for the generous support, and we shall ensure good utilization of these vehicles.”

In 2020, the bank provided a $4.2 million grant to bolster South Sudan’s health system and support COVID-19 response efforts. Through the grant, the WHO provided the Health Ministry with medicines, biomedical equipment and personal protective equipment. The funds also facilitated the remodeling of four COVID-19 treatment centers.

WHO has also trained more than 400 health workers to care for COVID-19 patients across the country and is working to procure an oxygen generation plant.

Benedict Kanu, AfDB country manager for South Sudan, said the country faces continuous issues that affect national health care.

“We must not forget the looming food crisis, which is affecting the health and wellbeing of millions of people in South Sudan, as a result of flooding, conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kanu said in the WHO news release. “We also need to accelerate a vaccine program in South Sudan and elsewhere in Africa to save lives and livelihoods.”

The U.S. government has also supported South Sudan throughout the pandemic, donating nearly $48 million in personal protective equipment and other medical supplies, as well as funding for soap, hygiene kits, household water treatment and water buckets. According to Global Waters, a nongovernmental organization, half the population lacks access to safe drinking water.

Schools in South Sudan reopened in May 2021 after being closed for 14 months. But many South Sudanese children were unable to return to the classroom due to ongoing unrest, Mads Oyen, UNICEF’s chief of field operations, said in a news release. For many students, returning to school is about more than simply learning.

“Especially in a country like South Sudan, where we’re also faced with humanitarian emergencies in many parts of the country,” Oyen said. “Schools are places for children to be safe and to be protected and also to access basic services, school feeding and so on.”