Lifesaving Medical Supplies Have Landed in South Sudan

Thanks to your kindness, health workers in South Sudan are now better equipped to provide lifesaving care to thousands of patients facing a healthcare crisis.
Your donations over the past year made it possible for a shipment of lifesaving medications to reach the Peace Winds South Sudan team earlier this week from our partner organization, Direct Relief. One of the world’s leading medical aid providers, Direct Relief specializes in arranging in-kind donations of drugs and medical supplies to nonprofits like Peace Winds working in low resource areas. They arrange air freight and donate the goods free of cost, so we are incredibly grateful for that.

But there are a wide range of other costs, such as customs clearance, local transportation, and local storage, that Peace Winds needs to pay in order to be able to receive these lifesaving supplies. Your contributions went directly toward the most recent shipment, multiplying the impact of your dollars for the 21,000 Sudanese refugees and others living in and around Gorom Refugee Settlement, outside of Juba.
Despite being highly treatable, cholera has become a major killer in camps where Sudanese refugees are seeking safe haven. Several people tragically passed away after contracting it last year in Gorom. Our team was hit particularly hard when a young boy, Ahmed, who used to follow around our water engineers and try to play soccer with them, died in an outbreak this time last year.
So we’re delighted that this shipment included cholera kits with enough medications to nurse 200 moderately and severely affected patients back to health. Our Gorom Primary Health Care Center also received a medical tent that will allow cholera-affected patients to properly quarantine, mitigating disease spread. This is particularly timely since the rainy season started last month, and cholera is on the rise again.

The shipment includes a wide range of other essential medications and supplies, too, that will be used to treat the thousands of men, women, and children who rely on our health center for primary and maternal care. This comes as a welcome relief for both patients and providers who have been coping with dire supply shortages for more than a year.
We are so grateful to supporters like you and to Direct Relief for making this shipment possible. Because of your kindness, healthcare workers can save more lives and provide better care for patients with treatable conditions.
But our work is far from over. More supplies are still needed, the small team of providers is stretched beyond capacity, and the health center is desperately in need of facility repairs. Looking forward, your donations will help us continue to bridge these gaps so that everyone who calls Gorom home can get the care they need.