Doctors on Move: A South Sudan Team of Doctors working Free of charge for Rural Communities
Doctors On Move is a South Sudan indigenous non-profit, non- commercial and non-political organization founded in March 2012. The organization was registered (Reg.no 1710) and incorporated in accordance with the South Sudan NGOs act 2012 in March 2013. The Founders are South Sudanese health professionals and non-health professionals working in Gudele Medical and Surgical Home, a private hospital, and other institutions based in Juba, South Sudan.
The team members created this organization to meet their social responsibility of providing secondary medical services to the most needy living in the rural areas in South Sudan, where there is a severe shortage of highly skilled health professionals and poor health infrastructure.
Figure 1. Dr Margaret Itto (4th from right) State Minister of Health, Eastern Equatoria, launched DOM medical camp in Torit, March 2013>
Doctors on Move have the following objectives:
- Building/empowering the practical clinical skills of the existing health providers (doctors, Clinical Officers, Midwives and Nurses) in remote hospitals or facilities with severe shortage of skilled health providers
- Provide special surgical services to the people in State/County Hospitals which cannot be conducted by the residing Medical Officer(s)/Surgeons.
- Provide relevant maternal, newborn and child care services
- Provide Mental health care services.
- Provide appropriate trainings for health providers working in lower resource health facilities.
- Conduct outreach specialist consultations to offer special clinical services to the people with chronic diseases such as asthma, epilepsy, diabetes etc.
- Promote research into rare medical conditions.
- Design appropriate low cost methods for secondary health care intervention which can be applied to solve common or rare medical conditions.
- Develop distant learning and consultation networking for health professionals across the country.
The funding of Doctors On Move comes in the following ways:
- Members and good wishers contribute both in kind and cash. i.e hiring a vehicle for the outreach trips, taking time out to travel with the team to work free for a short time.
- 2% from monthly income of Gudele Medical and Surgical Home.
Figure 2 Dr. Danga and patient with Nodding Syndrome with residual right eye injury which needs reconstructive surgery
Figure 3 Dr. Danga training on Helping Babies Breathe, Torit
Figure 4 Dr. Martin Maring Consultant Obstetrician runs Special Clinic, Torit
The future plan for Doctors on Move is to become one of the leading NGOs in providing and filling the gap in secondary healthcare to the people and the health facilities in the South Sudan where there are severe shortage of skilled health personnel through focused short term and regular trainings of most needed skills.
To achieve this, Doctors on Move would like to build a wider involvement and participation of various skilled South Sudanese health professionals working both in the South Sudan and abroad; and as well as health volunteers from other countries who are interested to join the team in improving the health situation in the rural communities.
In order not to affect our day to day activities, DOM activities planned to take place in any State are organized by its members in collaboration with relevant state ministry of health in advance. The organization mobilizes the necessary resources, and members of the team get a short time out from their work places without interfering with their respective jobs.
The organization will soon have a complete schedule for its Move and hopes this will be accessible both at SSMJ and the organization’s website www.domss.tk. We hope it will be useful for those willing to
join the planned outreach activities to register, and to express their area of interest in working with the Doctors on Move team.
We want to enlighten and introduce DOM to readers of the SSMJ, and explain that, although the organization is small, the work we are doing is big. The organization believes that wider involvement and participations of all individuals, and other NGO support in various forms means we will achieve more.
The biggest challenge that Doctors On Move is facing today is that the organization does not have its own vehicles for an outreach activities. Hence, the organizations either hires vehicles or depends on vehicles given out for temporary use by friends of Doctors on Move.
Your involvement will help support our vital vision of taking medical services to the people; and hence our medical specialist volunteers will be able to move out more frequently and regularly to reach the most needy people who have no means to travel to search for secondary health care services elsewhere. No matter how much you donate, it always counts for the success of our mission.
For more details Contact
Dr. Louis Danga
All figures belong to Doctors On Move
Doctors on Move and Nodding Syndrome
Doctors On Move (DOM) has identified Nodding Syndrome & Epilepsies amongst the most neglected diseases in the Rural Communities in the Western Equatoria and West of Central Equatoria State. DOM medical team identified the following amongst the long list of problems/effects of Nodding Syndrome & epilepsies that needs immediate collaborative interventions:
- Increasing cases of both Nodding Syndrome and Epilepsies amongst the Communities
- Most affected people are children aged 5 to 18 years, this will directly threaten their growth potentials, school attendances and future participation in the National development
- Almost all affected children have dropped from school or have not been to school due to various reasons related to the Disease
- Majority of affected people have no access to health services and care ( drugs, health educations)
- Majority of the patients buy their own medicines, which is not sustainable, take them irregularly and in the wrong doses.
- Majority of affected people and families are living with stigma.
To combat the above Nodding Syndrome and epilepsy health related problems, DOM is developing Rehabilitation and Integrated Health Care Services (RIHCS) for children and families affected by Nodding disease/epilepsy in the Central and Western Equatoria States. The RIHCS package includes the following:
- Active surveillance and early diagnosis
- Nodding Syndrome/epilepsy awareness and management of stigmas
- Distribution of relevant anti-epileptic drugs & multivitamins, especially the combined Vitamin B1 B6, B12
- Nutritional support
- Treatment of co-existent conditions and any complications.
- Training of health workers from within the communities to support implementation of the RIHCS package
- Re-integration into schools
- Research
