When Suzy Kuj first came to South Sudan in the late 1990s, she found a great need to help and provide medical care, which was basically nonexistent at the time. Life was short and death was common. Malnutrition, malaria and meningitis killed many daily. Starting from nothing a medical care facility was begun and has grown to meet the needs of the people in the area of Tonj.
Today a small clinic manned by Dr. Tom, an American medical doctor, 2 nurse-midwives, a clinical officer and a Kenyan lab technician. This staff also trains the local Sudanese young men and women who work hard to learn to care for their people and interpret for the providers. The basic staff is also aided by doctors, nurses and other health professionals who come from all over the world to share the love of Christ through medical missions and share the gospel with the patients and their families. The staff likes to say “meds and equipment often we have not, but through God’s strength we can do a lot.”
Daily the staff sees 80-140 medical patients and does 30-40 prenatal visits. The midwives also do 30- 40 deliveries a month. Other services provided are wound care, burn care, and minor surgeries. Emergency services are provided 24/7 and though they try to concentrate on women and children, the staff has responded in emergencies to take care of dozens of gunshot victims during the cattle wars and numerous auto accident victims.
The staff also provides immunizations for tetanus, DPT, polio, measles, and BCG. Health education is provided and home visits are made. Always the Gospel is shared and the patients are prayed for. All know it is God who heals and all strive for Him to receive all the glory for the works He does through the team, whether it be the missionaries or paid Kenyan and local staff.
Services are provided basically free of charge and all funding comes from loving donors from all over the world but mainly from individual Christian brothers and sisters in the USA who support the work through their prayers and finances. We are continuing to try to expand our services and when road conditions permit, we take our mobile medical care to outlying villages, an outreach we are trying to do more frequently each year. A new and much-improved clinic/hospital with a surgical theatre, electricity, and running water is now under construction with a date to move in set for 2014. We are also seeing the local staff originally trained by one of our community health workers now off to school in Kenya training to be clinical officers. Someday we hope the staff will be mostly South Sudanese nationals who will be assisted by visiting missionaries.
Above all everyone at our clinic, staff and patients, are seeking to grow daily in their relationship with God through Christ. We attend devotions and spend time in prayer together daily. We know all is useless if Christ is not known and honored. We know that we can treat, but only God heals and that He has allowed us all to see Him work miracles in our lives and in the lives of our patients. To God be the Glory.
