Introduction:

My husband, Dr Anil Cherian and I, Dr Shalini Ninan Cherian, known to friends as Anil and Tina have been working in Africa for the past 10 years as Medical Missionaries. We worked in Uganda for five years and for the next five years in South Sudan. All the time we were serving the people of South Sudan.

In 2011, when South Sudan became a new nation, we felt called to help build the health system. As we examined the felt needs of the country, we decided to concentrate on training Health workers.

After nearly 50 years of civil war, South Sudan became independent, but the war had left the country ‘poor’ in every way. The health system, especially, was very badly affected. In fact, the extremely high maternal mortality rate was what brought South Sudan to our attention. At 1223 per 100,000 live births (world bank report 2021), the rate is still the highest in the world. This year we reached a milestone as more than 100 health workers have been trained. This includes Clinical officers (like physician’s assistants), Midwives and Nurses. And we are glad to say that all of them are employed, making the institute proud.

The need:

While we worked in Uganda, life was easier. The infrastructure of the institute/health training school and accommodation for students were good. We were able to host quite a few volunteers who helped in training our students. Looking back, Anil and I now realize that these volunteers provided much needed spiritual support and friendly encouragement. We are so grateful to them.

Though we have seen God’s grace and mercy on us, life has not been easy in Bor South Sudan. Re-establishing the Institute in 2019, looking to its day to day functioning and the heavy teaching load made life hectic. And just when we thought we had got the system functioning, COVID 19 pandemic was upon us!

We had to start all over again. But we are there now! Praise God.

And we are ready to welcome our International volunteer tutors. Except we don’t have guest houses for them to stay in and the good hotels in town are very expensive.

We want to build two self-contained guest houses. We need funds for this. The estimate for the construction using a local contractor is USD 15-20,000.

We are appealing to well-wishers to help us raise this amount. Also, if you are a midwife, nurse or doctor and love teaching, do join our team of volunteers. You will experience rural Africa first hand.