The United States government on Wednesday donated 5 million U.S dollars to World Health Organization for it to diffuse the current health challenges and acute food insecurity in South Sudan.
This contribution is meant to support approximately 1.1 million internally displaced persons, returnees, and host communities confronted by severe food insecurity.
People affected by floods in exactly 20 counties of Jonglei, Lakes, Unity, Upper Nile, Warrap, and Western Equatoria states will also take a share of this benevolent contribution by the US government.
Katherine Crawford, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director based in South Sudan said they expect the contribution to improving the quality of health services in the country.
“These emergency health kits will bolster disease surveillance which is credibly important because we are coming out of COVID-19,” Crawford said during a handover ceremony held in Juba on Wednesday.
She urged the government of the country to address drivers of sub-national violence and take full responsibility of its health system.
“We will continue to address the most urgent needs of people while giving South Sudan leadership space and time to uproot causes of insecurity, violence, and displacement.”
On the other hand, Dr. Victoria Anib Majur, Undersecretary for the Ministry of Health said the US resources will be used to reduce death from preventable illnesses in the country.
“The funding will help the ministry of health to respond to several disease outbreaks and I think you heard earlier that people are dying of preventable and immunizable diseases,” Majur said.
Dr. Fabian Ndenzako, World Health Organization Representative in South Sudan said the aid will help WHO to improve coordination for effective humanitarian response and enable affected communities to have access to critical health services.
“This funding we are receiving from USAID will be used in five areas. We will be using these resources to procure and distribute health kits to various health facilities,” said Ndenzako.
Ndenzako noted that the funds will also be used to improve service delivery across all the administrative levels in the country.
“The funding will also be used for capacity building, for prevention, early detection, investigation and rapid response to disease outbreak and improving coordination for effective humanitarian response.”
