Obituary: Dr Pastore Alphonse Kwajok
Dr Pastore Alphonse Kwajok was among the first dentists from South Sudan. He graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry at Tanta University in Egypt in 1984. After graduating, he worked at Khartoum and Omdurman Teaching Hospitals from 1984 -1989 and at the Juba Teaching Hospital from 1990-1997.
Dr Pastore was born on January 1, 1953, in Kwörijik, Lurit (suburb of Juba), South Sudan. He started elementary school in Liria, Central Equatoria State, and completed at Rifia Shendi. He progressed to Intermediate School at El Damer Al Amiriya and completed at Juba One Intermediate School. Later, he was a student at Malakal Senior Secondary School, after which he entered Tanta University in Egypt.
Due to deteriorating security, Dr Pastore and his family left Sudan for Egypt in 1999 where he worked for the International Organization for Migration as an Interpreter and Cultural Orientation Officer. In January 2001, he and his family were resettled in Des Moines, Iowa, where he worked for Fresenius Medical as a dialysis technician until his death. Dr Pastore was married in 1995 to Ustaza Erika Matia Loro Bureng.
Dr Pastore was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2020 and fought a long and hard battle with the disease. He succumbed to the illness at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 22, 2021, in the presence of his family. He leaves behind his wife, Erika Bureng, children George and Stephania, and his nephew, Yohana. He is also survived by his brothers, Dr James Kwajok, Batista Kwajok, and Ezu Kwajok, and sisters, Ann Kwajok, Liliana Kwajok, and Amphibia Kwajok.
Dr Pastore was a very outgoing person, a community organizer, the first president of the Equatoria South Sudanese Community in Iowa, and a loving and devoted father and husband. Family, relatives, and friends will greatly miss him.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
