ARC

Drive from airport

 Finally arriving in Juba was so exciting after so many months of planning and anticipation!  One of the ARC drivers picked me up from the airport in one of the trucks (with a HUGE antenna on the front) and took me to the office where Pamela and I got right to work!

"A Toast to a New Nation"

Pride is radiating everywhere from street billboards to people's faces and big smiles.  I keep congratulating those I meet and its great to see their happiness and hear about the celebrations from last week.  I'm so sad I missed it!

"Celebrating Freedom"

  Driving around Juba is really interesting.  There is such a mix of old and new.  The city is quickly developing from unpaved, uneven roads with one room huts and one room steel contructed boxes to paved roads and cement two- to three- story buildings. 

ARC office building

 The ARC compound includes a building with several offices, a security building and a portable building with two bedrooms.

Office I share with Pamela

Logistics/Security office

ARC mascot

Portable building, each one bedroom

My lovely room!!  Yes, that's an air conditioner up there!!

Some Background on why I'm here!!
ARC (American Refugee Committee) International has been providing services to refugees and internally displaced persons in crisis-affected settings for decades.  They started working in South Sudan in 2004 and while based in Juba have opened several offices throughout the country. Programs in primary and reproductive healthcare, gender-based violence prevention, STI/HIV prevention and treatment as well as water sanitation aim to provide sustainable services that communities can continue on their own.  
South Sudan is greatly in need of these services especially those in RH (reproductive health).  The average woman delivers 6-7 children and only 10% of women deliver with a trained attendant present (and that's usually at home).  Unattended births leads to a large number of complications and maternal deaths.  South Sudan has the world's highest maternal mortality--1 in 7 women is at risk of death during pregnancy.  By improving RH access and delivery, the goal of the Ministry of Health is to decrease maternal and child morbidity and mortality.  With only 30 trained OB/Gyns and 100 midwives in a country of almost 9 million people, the largest problem is human resources and disseminating information properly. 
RAISE (Reproductive Health Access, Information and Services in Emergencies) is a program that was started in Kenya with the help of Pamela Ochieng, a midwife and now RH coordinator for ARC.  Using the RAISE curriculum, ARC has been commissioned by UNFPA to train home health promotors with a goal of training 270 HHPs by December and to also train MDs, midwives and medical officers in family planning.  So this week, Pamela and I will be doing TOT (training of trainers) in Juba.  We will be training 11 ARC officers from different offices across South Sudan to train HHPs in their communities.  Each ARC officer will be responsible for training 20-50 HHPs to provide RH care to women in their communities and hopefully Pamela will reach her goal!
The following week we will be training MDs and midwives in family planning services, counseling and delivery.   
OK, that's enough, but you all know I get pretty excited about my job!!  More to come later this week. . .