Expanding Facilities at St. Therese Hospital
Where
South Sudan
Why
Enhance health outcomes, with better facilities and improved staff capacity to use them, and create community awareness of the new unit to ensure its use.
Funded by
CMMB/Aurora Fund; the Comboni Sisters; the Edmund Rice Foundation; Kenda Onlus, Italy; the Loyola Foundation; Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston; and the Sudan Relief Fund.
When
2017–present
What
South Sudan’s poor health infrastructure reflects both the youth of this nation, which has violent conflict since it was carved out of Sudan in 2011. Despite a population of 12 million, the country has just three blood banks—none effectively functional due to insurgencies and poor roads that impede blood distribution. In Nzara, rather than turn away patients in dire need of care, St. Therese Hospital has been forced to perform surgical procedures in nonsurgical facilities.
To improve the situation, CMMB has sought and received support from generous donors to add four critical new buildings to the St. Therese grounds:
- An operating theater, with a major and minor theater.
- A surgical recovery ward.
- A maternity ward.
- A blood bank.
All these structures were part of a long-term master plan for the hospital, which is owned by the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio and has been operated for more than three decades by the Comboni Sisters. In a typical year, the hospital serves some 80,000 men, women, and children from the Western Equatoria region and neighboring nations. With project completion scheduled for 2020, women who need Cesarean sections and people with gunshot wounds, orthopedic problems, hernias, and other conditions requiring surgery will have a safe, appropriate place to seek care.
Find out more:
Building for a Healthier Future in South Sudan: Pictures of Progress