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Visiting RMF programs, Jonathan White, RMF Director of International Relations, has traveled from Uganda to Southern Sudan, completing his marathon 3-week journey across Africa in Nigeria where he met staff and patients at the Gure Model Healthcare Clinic.
Proud New Nursing & Midwifery Students and Principal
May 2010
After leaving Uganda, Jonathan heads to Southern Sudan to visit our Nursing & Midwifery College and to meet the new students who have recently begun classes on May 10th, 2010.
Southern Sudan hold ones of the the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality in the world. When Real Medicine landed in the new country to address this issue we realized that, more than anything, they needed trained staff to fill the facilities already in place throughout the country.
This is the first school of it’s kind and marks a decisive step toward curbing the infant and maternal mortality now plaguing Southern Sudan. Once the 3 year course is complete, our select students will go on to staff the now vacant clinics that dot the countryside and become the front line of care for mothers and children in need.
After the clinic and our support of the Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools make up the next biggest component of our program in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. The students we support are mostly Kenyan refugees, but there is also a small group of Sudanese students and one Congolese that receive full support for school fees and supplies as well.
by Jonathan White, RMF Director of International Relations
After the rousing and heart warming welcome I received on my first day’s visit to Kiryandongo, I spent the next two days immersed in our projects and meeting everyone I’d heard from in the community meetings one on one. Partly to make personal connections with those who manage our projects, but also to gauge the effectiveness of our funding and prioritize the rest of our year.
The majority of our year’s funding was already committed to the operating costs of our primary clinic (staffing, medicine, and other supplies) and the school fees for the students we support, with a small amount left over for the many other needs of the community. I am learning quickly that this is, of course, the hardest part of the job: no matter how much funding you gather, there will always be something or someone you have to turn down.
As RMF’s Jonathan White travels through Africa, you can follow him in photos. Click here to see Jonathan’s complete collection of photos with short descriptions.
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Reporting from Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Uganda (May 2010)
What a day
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