Southern Sudan: Facing up to Reality
In 2009, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) witnessed a worrying deterioration in the situation in the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan, with severe medical humanitarian implications for the population…
Before the war, Southern Sudan had a severe lack of general infrastructure and health systems, and the decades of conflict destroyed what little existed. At present, it is commonly estimated that up to 75 percent of the population have no access to even the most basic healthcare.
This is an ACTUAL 75%. In that States, we have heard politicians, including our president, claim that over 40 million Americans don’t have health insurance. What they don’t tell you is that 9 million of those make over $75,000 per year, 5.2 million are illegal immigrants, 9.7 million are eligible for current government programs, and 6 million are eligible for employer-sponsored insurance. But the Sudanese don’t lack health insurance, they lack health care. They don’t have an emergency room to visit. They don’t have CVS or Rite Aid to purchase Tylenol or bandages.
The only hospital I saw in southern Sudan was closed, abandoned. A mother was left on the road- begging for someone to help her sick child being held in her arms. The nearest hospital was miles away, which in that terrain, would take hours to reach even in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
