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Video and media coverage on recent eye surgeries at the clinic!
Check out this video from KSL.com to see our clinic in action!
Update on JDF's Upcoming Activities!
John Dau left for South Sudan on Saturday, 11/26 for a 6-week trip to work on some important new developments at the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, which was built by the John Dau Foundation in John’s home village back in May 2007. Since its beginnings out of the Skaneateles Presbyterian Church, the Clinic has seen over 60,000 patients in one of the most underserved places in the world and has become one of the best health facilities in the newly-formed Republic of South Sudan.
Are you a federal government employee?
Don't forget that JDF is a participant in the 2011 Combined Federal Campaign which runs from September 1st to December 15th! If you are a federal worker and your workplace participates in the Combined Federal Campaign, please consider supporting the John Dau Foundation in this year's campaign by selecting CFC# 22143. You can learn more about the CFC here!
God Grew Tired of Us: Film Screening + Q&A
God Grew Tired Of Us: Film Screening + Q&A
An Evening with John Dau; A “Lost Boy of Sudan”
Duk Lost Boys Clinic Earns High Marks
Less than four years ago, if someone got sick in John's home of Duk, the chances of dying were among the highest in the world. Conditions like pneumonia, malaria, or complicated childbirth, which are handled quite routinely in many other places in the world, could mean a death sentence for someone. But with the John Dau Foundation's construction of the Duk Lost Boys Clinic in May 2007, all that began to change. In five years, the child mortality rate in John's village dropped by more than half.
Flight Brings Vital Supplies to Clinic
The anticipation of the flight always seems to make the morning drag on in Duk.
In order to get supplies into the remote area of the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, JDF charters a plane through another non-profit organization, AIM AIR. Beginning its journey in Nairobi, it picks up medicines, personnel, spare parts, and other supplies to keep the Clinic running. The payload for the charters is about 900kg, or just less then one ton, and every inch of it is used and usually items have to be left behind.
A Typical Day in Sudan
The morning starts at different times for each person. There are a few alarm clocks one can choose from, from the soft sounds of crickets and frogs, the cock crows as the sun starts to go up, or drum beats from someone making music in the village. Usually the final wake up call comes when the Clinic’s facilities manager fires up the generator, which runs a submerged well pump and pumps water up into the storage tank in the Clinic and is used to clean the Clinic in the morning. It takes about an hour to fill the tank, which lasts the whole day.
A Work in Progress
Over the past year, the number of women seeking maternity services at the Clinic has risen dramatically. This is because of the many initiatives by the John Dau Foundation such as trainings for traditional birth attendants, hiring of new clinical staff, and an increase in supplies brought in to the Clinic. The number of women coming for routine prenatal care checkups has grown by more than ten times what it was a year ago.
Staff at the Clinic Make a Difference
When the rains hit in South Sudan this time of year, a lot of things get slowed down and halted. Because of the poor condition of the roads when it rains, the chance of getting a vehicle stuck and even lost is very high, since the roads are all dirt.
But for the staff of the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, those risks are worth taking.
