Thousands of South Sudanese have benefited over the years from the free medical consultations and treatments offered by the various Chinese Medical teams in the country. This was revealed by Mr. Ma Wenjun, Charge d’Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan on the Ceremony of awarding Honorary Certificates to the departing 9th batch of China Medical Team who have already handed over the baton to the tenth batch on Wednesday September 7, 2022.
Mr. Ma said this year marks the 10th year since the Chinese government sent its first China Medical Team to South Sudan to provide medical assistance in 2012 shortly after the country’s independence.
“In the past ten years, a total of 126 medical personnel have worked in South Sudan, offered free medical consultation and treatment for 52,707 outpatients, and performed more than 1,000 operations of various kinds and 971 cases of gastroscopy examinations. They have carried out 17 free medical consultative events in remote areas outside Juba, providing outreach medical services for 25,534 patients”, Ma said.
The Charge d’Affairs also revealed that every batch of China Medical Team donated medical equipment and medicines worth more than RMB 1 million (around 150,000 U.S. dollars) to Juba Teaching Hospital which is cumulatively one and a half million dollars.
He continued that besides setting up Electronic Gastroscopy Department, the Cervical Screening Center as well as Remote Imaging Diagnosis Center in Juba Teaching Hospital, the Chinese medical Team organized regular training for medical staff in the hospital.
“They have supported four batches of 33 South Sudanese medical staff in studying and training in China. In the meantime, they have undertaken teaching in anesthesiology at the Juba Health Research Institute and taught students at the Nurse-midwife School at Juba Teaching Hospital”,he added.
Just like what true friends are for, the China Medical Teams also attach great importance to public welfare undertakings according to the Charge D’Affaire. “Every month, they visit Juba Orphanage and CCC Orphanage with milk, candy, biscuits, bottled drinking water, clothes, school bags and offer physical examination and medical treatment for the children. It is a great move to show love to and inspire the children”, he said.
Quoting from an ancient Chinese poem, he said “Green hills immerse in the same cloud and rain.” The same moon lights up towns however far away.” The Chinese government has long been adhering to the philosophy of people-centred development and taking people’s health and safety as the top priority and also cares about the health and happiness of the people of South Sudan as a genuine friend. “This genuine friendship is translated in the construction of Phase I of Juba Teaching Hospital and Kiir Mayardit Women’s Hospital in Rumbek, both are the first and best of its kind in South Sudan. China provided batches of medical supplies and sent a China medical expert team to help South Sudanese friends combat Covid-19 with solidarity”, he explained.
He concluded by saying that the medical and health programs implemented in South Sudan are among the top priority in the “nine programs ” put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping and listed as outcomes of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held last November in Senegal.
“In South Sudan, there are seven projects included in the implementation of follow-up actions of the Forum’s outcomes, among which are the phase II of Juba Teaching Hospital Project and continuing dispatch of medical teams. The Phase II of Juba Teaching Hospital Project will be constructed with a Chinese government grant of 45 million U.S. dollars. It will cover a total floor area of 16,000 square meters including medical technology building, outpatient building, inpatient building, infectious disease building, administrative building and other ancillary facilities. Some medical equipment will also be provided.”
The award ceremony was attended by several high level government officials led by the Vice President for Service Cluster His Excellency Hussein AbdelBagi, the minister for health, undersecretary for health as well as senior representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation.