Flooding Causes Health Problems in South Sudan

By: Victoria Calderon
Produced & edited by Kaylyn Hlavaty

At the peak of malaria season and in the midst of heavy flooding in South Sudan, medical aid is needed more than ever for Southern Sudanese refugees, but violence has suspended the delivery of necessary medical services from non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

“[The] majority of South Sudanese heavily rely on humanitarian aid,” says CHF International South Sudan Director Senada Kahriman, especially when 60 per cent of the country is cut off from access during the rainy season.

Médecins Sans Frontières Head of Mission in South Sudan Stefano Zannini says MSF is close to suspending all services in the country due to security concerns.

Courtesy of Catholic Relief Services Staff. Academic Fair Use.

Courtesy of Catholic Relief Services Staff. Academic Fair Use.

“This will have a devastating impact on the community, leaving more than 160,000 residents of Pibor County without access to health care,” says Zannini.

Some agencies have pulled their regular staff and organized mobile teams to provide daily visits to remote villages, says Kahriman.

“In Abyei for example, where health facilities and the entire town were destroyed and people displaced, mobile teams travel daily to provide services to returnees, and the new health facilities have been established in the places where the population was displaced.”

South Sudan’s grasslands, swamps, and tropical rain forests that straddle both banks of the White Nile serve as a breeding ground for life-threatening diseases when the river floods.

According to Médecins Sans Frontières, malaria cases have tripled in the Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal state.

Spikes of malaria generally start in May and begin to subside in September and October until they hit their lowest point in December. However, the rainy season began even earlier than usual this year and will likely continue longer than normal.

The states most affected by flooding are Jonglei, Lakes, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Unity, Upper Nile and Warrap.

“Seasonal flooding has affected about 260,000 people this year across South Sudan. Although coordinated emergency response is ongoing to flood-affected people, needs can only partially be met,” says Kahriman.

The continued influx of Sudanese refugees has strained humanitarian operations.

“Upper Nile and Unity State have received huge number of refugees from the north, fleeing conflict affected areas of Blue Nile State and Southern Kordofan. There are also great needs to assist returnees coming from the north of Sudan, as well as [internally displaced persons]. UN sources confirm that More than 126,000 people have returned to South Sudan this year,” says Kahriman.

The heavy flow of water has strengthened the presence of infected mosquitos, which increase the likelihood that malaria will be transmitted to people after they are bitten, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Lamwalhok Liah is a worker in the out patient department of Médecins Sans Frontières in Juba, South Sudan. He says the condition of malaria and typhoid are present in all ten states, but it is at its height in the headquarters of Juba and the upper Nile region.

Malaria is preventable and curable, but the Plasmodium parasite that is spread with the bites of infected mosquitoes causes around 216 million cases of malaria every year around the world.

The large numbers of South Sudanese who were living in Sudan have returned to the south since the country’s independence, and these people have less immunity to malaria and are more likely to develop the disease says WHO.

South Sudan successfully transitioned to independence in June 2011 after 99 per cent of Southern Sudanese voted to separate from Sudan. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement established that South Sudan regional autonomy.

Partial human immunity, especially among adults in areas of moderate to intense transmission conditions, can be built up after years of exposure even if it will never provide complete protection, according to WHO.

Despite the excess of floodwater from the White Nile, refugees are sick with dehydration.

South Sudan courtesy of Shannon Jensen. Academic Fair Use.

South Sudan courtesy of Shannon Jensen. Academic Fair Use.

According to the Amherst-based Global Water Policy Project in the United States, about 36-percent of Africa’s population lacks access to safe drinking water. By 2025, the United Nations Development Program estimates that about one in two Africans will be living in countries that are confronted with water scarcity.

This water stress indicates that each person in the country has access to less than 1,500 cubic meters of water every year. In cases of water scarcity, this amount is reduced to 1,000 cubic meters.

This situation leaves Sudanese vulnerable to contracting waterborne diseases like diarrhea and Cholera in addition to the already rampant malaria.

The livelihood of Sudan depends on the use of its water sources. Eighty per cent of the country works in agriculture, and this accounts for 97 per cent of its water use, according to The Water Project.

The 22-year civil war that ended in 2005 left the health infrastructure of South Sudan in a poor condition, according to the Malaria Consortium, and non-governmental organizations have provided a range of health support while the infrastructure improves.

Kahriman says that while South Sudan is dependent on the health care from NGOs, “significant improvement [was] made this year in coordinating support to primary health care services, and jointly developed long-term strategy for health sector. This has brought together the government, key donors (USAID, World Bank and DFiD) and implementing NGOs.”

Southern Sudanese leaders fought for autonomy after more than two million southern Sudanese had paid for freedom with their lives. Another four million were displaced during the twenty-two years of guerilla warfare before the peace accord was established.

South Sudan remains to be one of Africa’s least developed countries as indicated by The Least Developed Countries Report 2011, determined by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

International Mass Media: August 1

By Lindsay Boyle

On Wednesday, August 1, the ninth and final International Mass Media summer course was held in Copeland Hall at the Ohio University campus. During each class, two SUSI scholars give a lecture about their own country’s media systems, journalism practices and political cultures. All of the lectures are streamed live through Ohio University distance learning and are available online to 35 students who are taking a summer class instructed by Dr. Brook Beshah.

The SUSI summer institute — in which scholars from all over the world come to the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at OU to study journalism and media — is funded by an annual renewable grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Study of the U.S. Branch in the Office of Academic Exchange Programs.

Dr. Ibaa Awad
Sudan

To kick off her presentation, scholar Dr. Ibaa Awad gave some facts about Sudan, the third largest country in Africa. Sudan has a population of 33 million, with about 50 percent residing in urban areas. The country’s economy is largely agricultural.

The primary religions are Islam, Christianity and indigenous beliefs, and the primary languages are Arabic, English and indigenous languages. Awad also discussed some of the national dress, foods and traditions of Sudan, including the fact that wedding celebrations in the country can last three days.

Sudan gained independence in 1956, underwent a second civil war from 1983 to 2005, and then adopted an interim constitution in 2005 after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed.

The government now operates as a representative democratic republic that has national and state levels with about 72 registered political parties. However, questions have been raised about the fairness of the 2010 presidential election.

In Sudan, Awad said that journalists are considered to be responsible, first and foremost, for providing at least somewhat free information to their audience. She explained that the government used to interfere more in regard to what could be reported, but now does not do so as often.

However, Awad also said that the media are sometimes hindered by the fact that some governmental workers simply do not understand the role that media should play.


SUSI scholar Dr. Ibaa Awad presents a lecture that is streamed live through OU distance learning, and is available online.

There is a long history of print newspapers in Sudan, according to Awad. Although there are more the 45 papers that are not politically affiliated, she said there are no local papers at all.

Several magazines exist that cover many different topics for multiple audiences, she said. Radio and TV have a mixture of governmentally, privately and locally owned stations.

The online world is still developing in Sudan. Awad said that many websites target Sudanese diasporas. However, she explained that social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are usually reserved for educated people, journalists, and the like.

One of main agencies in Sudan, Awad explained, is the Sudan News Agency, which is owned by the government. It not only is the main source of local and international news in the country, but it also works as an information center for students, researchers and otherwise. Additionally, Awad said there are several other related councils ands unions that also work to promote journalistic activities.

Challenges faced by media workers in Sudan include poor pay and a lack of qualification and tools, as well as the general risk of performing the job.

Despite those, Awad said that most media workers genuinely exert efforts to provide honest information. She added that she believes media can affect society, but that such change occurs gradually through generations.

Prof. Guoping He
China

Professor Guoping He first introduced China, which is the largest — both in size and in population — developing nation. The country, he explained, operates under socialism, which takes its beliefs and principles from Marxism.

In the socialism system, society posses and controls the means of production, while the government manages and allocates tools, goods and materials based on public interest.

Although He acknowledged that there are many problems with socialism, he said that the idea is good overall. He pointed out that the Chinese have enjoyed about 30 years of sustainable economics with no war, and that China has become the manufacturing heart of the world.

He explained that, although China is and has been led by the Communist Party of China since gaining independence in 1949, there are about eight additional democratic parties that also participate in state affairs. However, those parties are not considered oppositional parties.

In China, the National People’s Congress is the highest authority, and the president is the head of state. According to He, the Chinese media, in addition to having “soft power,” have four primary functions: political, social, economical and entertainment.

Politically, He said the media serve as the mouthpiece for the state in what is essentially propaganda. Socially, the media produce, communicate and provide a public forum for information. Economically, advertisements in the media act as their own industry. Finally, for entertainment purposes, several different kinds of TV shows, such as reality TV, are available in China.

He explained that the media in China are not parallel with the government, but rather contained by it. The media follow a hierarchical model with four primary levels: central (national), provincial, city and county.


SUSI scholars and staff listen as scholar Guoping He presents a lecture that is streamed live through OU distance learning, and is available online.

There are two primary news agencies in China. One, which is the official governmental news organization of China, is the fourth largest news agency in the world. He said that it has many branches both domestically and internationally, and broadcasts in several different languages.

Although there are many print publications in China, He said that two of the frontrunners are People’s Daily and China Daily. People’s Daily is a state-run paper that has a circulation of about 2.35 million and publishes in multiple languages. China Daily was established in 1981 with the sole purpose of allowing foreigners to get information from China.

There are also many radio and TV channels available in China, including foreign channels that cover a variety of countries. The largest TV station is China Central Television, according to He.

Two of the biggest radio stations are China National Radio and China Radio International. The former, with a domestic audience of more than 700 million, has the largest audience in the world. The latter is the only national radio to broadcast to the world. It broadcasts in 43 languages.

In China, there are about 538 million Internet users. The State Council Information Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is responsible for regulating China’s Internet.

Additionally, He explained that many different organizations act as managers for every form of media, in both the physical and the online worlds. For example, the General Administration of Press and Publication manages all things related to print publications, and the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television manages all things related to broadcast media.

He said that there is no official press law in China, and that the openness and freedom of the media depends largely on the party leader. Regardless, he said that there is basically no chance for citizens to express their opinions on traditional media. Additionally, news from foreign agencies is usually censored and edited to some extent.

Recently, He explained that some media reforms have been taking place, though he pointed out that those reforms will not create instant change.

Unifying the scarred citizens of Southern Sudan

By Alyse Lamparyk

Edited by Hiram Foster


Photo courtesy of gossmission.org

As the region of South Sudan prepares to become an independent country this year on July 9, concerns about the unity of the people have surfaced. Violence amongst southern tribes has become prevalent now that the joint venture to declare independence has been achieved.

Solutions for unity abound, some broad and others specific.

Bec Hamilton, special correspondent on Sudan for The Washington Post, said in almost every rural interview that she has done over the last year the people’s focus has been the services that will be provided once a new government is established. They expect hospitals, schools, roads, electricity and clean water.

“People are waiting for their daily lives to actually change and there will be unrest if that doesn’t happen,” said Hamilton.

Bilha Achieng, assistant project director for United States based non-profit Real Medicine Foundation (RMF), said Southern Sudan’s Ministry of Health works closely with RMF to rebuild the infrastructure that was destroyed during the war. RMF helps to fund the Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery where Achieng said tribal differences have not been a problem.

“They have been getting along quite well, to the point you wouldn’t be able to differentiate from which tribe one is or from which other tribe someone else is,” said Achieng.

The common goal of rebuilding the health system by earning a certificate as a much-needed nurse or midwife allows for students to overcome their differences.

Jok Madut Jok, newly appointed undersecretary in the Government of Southern Sudan’s Ministry of Culture and Heritage, said it is tempting to think that a young country needs to focus on infrastructure and delivery of services. He is aware that people expect the new country to deliver right away, but said it will take time.

“While both of those are very important and will definitely need to be delivered, there is something that is equally important and that is the sense of nationhood,” said Jok. “South Sudanese have to go from being citizens of their tribes to certainly now being citizens of a nation.”

In order for the government to gain the respect of the people, he said it needs to be inclusive and represent the ethnic diversity found in Southern Sudan. Currently many citizens view the government as predominately consisting of Dinka tribesman, Jok serving as an example.

“If certain groups or people feel excluded from the state … from access to services, they will reach for their ethnic card … and that will be a dangerous thing for the government of South Sudan,” said Jok.

Hamilton said that Government of Southern Sudan’s encouragements for inclusiveness are good, but that history has shown new governments risk overlooking their promises once they obtain power. She cited the elections last year as an example, when political parties other than Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) had difficulties being accepted.

Ayak Chol Deng Alak, a radio presenter and journalist for United Nations Mission in Sudan’s Miraya FM, said ministers typically appoint staff from their own tribe. She understands that after the war no one wants their own people to suffer, but said there are other ways to help fellow tribesmen.

“They’re not making an initiative to halt this tribalism, which is the main obstacle in the unity of Southern Sudan,” said Alak. “In my opinion I don’t think they’ve given it their all.”

From the youth perspective, intermarriage is one of the best ways to break the tribal barriers, Alak said, because in African culture there is always respect for in-laws. She and her husband serve as an example, as she is from a tribe in Abyei and her husband is from a Southern Sudanese tribe.

Alak’s own parents modeled acceptance, as they are also from different tribes. She said that building a generation of change should begin with the children.

“If we the Southerners could be more forgiving of who our daughters and our sons want to be spouses with, I think that is one step forward,” said Alak.

Alak said her husband often suggests mixing people up and bringing individuals from different tribes to govern other states. He believes it will establish respect from both sides.

Within the next 18 months the President of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, has promised elections will occur. Hamilton said that if the plans do not proceed, then the international community may become involved.

David Johnson, founder of non-profit organization Silent Images, has traveled to Southern Sudan four times in the past three years and heard from citizens that, while Kiir is a good leader, he is not charismatic as John Garang was.

“I think the most unified that country has ever been is when John Garang [was leading them]. That’s what they need,” said Johnson.

A statue of John Garang built in Southern Sudan’s capital of Juba serves as a memorial to the former SPLM leader. Jok believes creating all-encompassing tributes and cultural museums to commemorate the war has the potential to establish nationalism.

But Hamilton and Johnson are not so entirely convinced it will equate to nationalism. Johnson questioned how much the tributes would really do for the community, while Hamilton said the many sides to the story imply the government would have to approach the subject carefully.

“I suspect that it may not be such an easy thing to go down this memorials path in a way that’s inclusive either, because as much as there was a north-south war there was an internal southern war,” said Hamilton.

While there is no easy solution to the problems at hand, the government of Southern Sudan has many options. The coming months will serve as a testament to what can be done.

Special Correspondent Visits Scripps

By Andreya Carlson
Executive Member, SGMD

Rebecca Hamilton, author and Washington Post special correspondent, discusses the current situation in Darfur and U.S. involvement over the years.

The genocide in Darfur may have ended, but international correspondent, Rebecca Hamilton, argues that there are still major problems in this western region of Sudan.

Rebecca Hamilton, special correspondent for the Washington Post, spent four years reporting and writing her book, Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide. Hamilton spoke at Ohio University on Tuesday, March 1st, 2011, in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Her visit was sponsored by the Institute for International Journalism and the African Studies program at Ohio University in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

In an interview with this author, Hamilton said that now her focus is “to get people interested in actually learning the lessons that are there to be learned from our engagement with Darfur – what worked, what didn’t work, and what that means for how we can do better next time.”

The American public’s interest in the Darfur conflict dramatically increased after former Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2004 referred to the situation as genocide during his address to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“That determination was pivotal as a catalyst for the formation of what can broadly be called the ‘Save Darfur Movement,’” Hamilton said. “I think the use of the word ‘genocide’ resonated very, very strongly for many communities in the United States.”

During her speech at Scripps Anderson Auditorium on Tuesday evening, Hamilton said several factors contributed to the genocide in Darfur, including land disputes as a result of desertification in the area, a pan-Arab ideology, and arms flows as a result of the Cold War.

Click Here to Watch her Video Interview

The Sudanese government in Khartoum fed off of an already existing inter-ethnic conflict by providing weapons and monetary aid to the Janjaweed, a nomadic Arab group at odds with the generally sedentary non-Arab Sudanese in Darfur. This was done when non-Arab groups known as the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement rebelled against the government on the grounds that they were socio-economically marginalized and were not being represented in power sharing.

The Janjaweed are responsible for such atrocities as looting and ravaging towns and for abducting, sexually assaulting, gang raping, and murdering non-Arab Sudanese citizens on a mass scale.

The Sudanese government signed a ceasefire agreement with the Justice and Equality Movement in February, 2010.

Millions of the Sudanese people are currently displaced as a direct result of the conflict in Darfur.

Hamilton has met some “phenomenal” women at these camps who are raising children in “conditions that are totally unacceptable, and still retaining – trying to retain – some hope for the future because they just have to keep going for their kids as much as anything else.”

The displacement camps are heavily skewed toward women because often during the violence women were raped and men were killed, and those men who were not killed were often part of a rebel group.

“But now the world is starting to walk away from Darfur, even though the situation there is not resolved,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton noted that the situation is actually much worse now than it has been in many years, as there has been more displacement in the past two months than in the five years before that.

“Today, I think people have started to realize that it’s not the 2003, 2004 situation,” Hamilton said. “But they sort of think that if there are not these huge massacres occurring, that somehow the situation is fine, failing to appreciate that when you still have 2.7 million people who can’t return to their homes, this is not a situation that is okay and that still needs a huge amount of work.”

Another part of Sudan has been in the news recently. A referendum occurred in January, resulting in the decision to have an independent South Sudan.

Hamilton said a lot of people know that there was a referendum in southern Sudan and that it went peacefully. “What’s frightening is that very many people think that that dealt with the situation in Darfur, failing to realize that South Sudan is a completely different part of the country.”

Southern Sudanese have decided to make English the official language. Since the official language has long been Arabic, these Arabic-speaking teachers are now struggling to teach their students in English.

A language barrier in Sudan is not the only obstacle in the classroom – there are also a disproportionate number of boys to girls in school.

Certain economic situations further complicate relations between northern and southern Sudan. The government in Khartoum has gathered a $35 billion debt, and they want the Southern government to take on a piece of that debt.

Part of this debt was incurred from fueling the military budget for the long war against southern Sudan in which 2 million people died.

“What does it mean for 2 million people to die?” Hamilton asked during her public lecture. “Every single person I interviewed had a family member who died. That’s the only way that I could wrap my head around it.”

There are also questions of citizenship rights in the new two-state Sudan, and an agreement needs to be reached concerning the sharing of oil wealth.

There has been a great deal of media attention on the referendum that passed in January in southern Sudan, but this has detracted from the media coverage in Darfur.

“It seems we can only focus on just the South, or just Darfur, and never able to put the whole picture together,” Hamilton said. “That’s what really needs to happen.”

Intern'l Correspondent Bec Hamilton visits OHIO

By Amber Skorpenske
IIJ Ambassador

Additional Reporting by Rachel Ferchak

The Institute of International Journalism (IIJ) proudly presents a prominent international correspondent, Rebecca Hamilton, to Ohio University from Mon., Feb. 28 to Wed., March 2. Ms. Hamilton is a Special Correspondent on Sudan for The Washington Post. She will give students a series of presentations and lectures on Sudan, the promises and perils of citizen engagement. The main event is on Tues., March 1 at 5:10pm in Scripps Hall, Room 111 (Anderson Auditorium). She will also hold a forum for the "African Studies at Noon" series on Wed., March 2, at Yamada House, in Yamada Seminar Room (009).

(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of State)

Hamilton’s book, Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide, is a multi-year investigation into the formation of U.S. and international policy on Darfur and the impact that the U.S. citizen outcry for Darfur has had. She has conducted over 150 interviews with policy-makers on Sudan within the previous and current U.S administration, within the UN, and within the Arab League. She has interviewed those deployed to Sudan with the Africa Union and has spoken to both the survivors and the perpetrators of the atrocities in Darfur.Hamilton has also been published in prestigious outlets such as Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, Slate, Newsweek and The International Herald Tribune. She has also done work as a lawyer at the International Criminal Court.

Hamilton told the IIJ in an interview that her work in Africa started out of genuine curiosity. Hamilton had been a part of the “Save Darfur” movement when she was a student and had great expectations about what citizen-driven advocacy could achieve. “But traveling back and forth to Sudan, it was also clear that those expectations were not translating into results on the ground. So I wanted to understand why that was,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton attempted to reconstruct that process in an attempt to allow advocates here in the U.S assess the impact of the activism they were pursuing. She says that this would help in “working out how to do better in future situations of mass atrocity.”

The IIJ encourages students of all majors and disciplines to attend the two important public lectures: Tues., March 1 at 5:10 p.m. in Scripps 111 and Wed., March 2, at Yamada Seminar Room (009).