Programs

The Duk Lost Boys Clinic offers a variety of medical services to the people of South Sudan. Click below to learn more:

> Maternal Child Health
> Community Health Workers
> EPI And deworming

OB/GYN Services

A girl is more likely to die in childbirth than she is to finish primary school in South Sudan today. - Vanessa Von Schoor

It is too early to have statistics from the Duk Lost Boys Clinic that demonstrate improvement in survival in terms of Obstetric work, but data will be available with time. Consider that until a few months ago, there was no prenatal care or obstetric care for the women in the region. Also, obstructed deliveries, post-partum hemorrhage and post-partum infections went completely untreated. These very treatable problems were likely lethal to mothers who would deliver in their grass huts on dirt floors, perhaps with assistance from a local traditional birth helper. Many of these women are young mothers, often under 16 years of age, as it is the tradition that they marry (often into a polygamous setting) and have children early. Mortality rates will be difficult to assess because when a baby or a mother dies in this setting there is no clinic or hospital tracking that information.

In December 2009, Clinic staff trained 25 Traditional Birth Attendents in proper medical procedures for childbirth. By providing them with safe birthing kits, flashlights, rain boots, and mosquito nets, the Clinic continues to advance its goal of protecting newly born children from tragic medical conditions that can be easily prevented. 

Community Health Workers

As the Clinic continues to expand and as funding becomes assured, local community health workers will be employed to help with daily observed treatment of immunizable diseases, particularly TB patients and deworming efforts. There are also plans to bring ophthalmologic surgeons in next year. While these surgeons can help with the goal, this health need remains in mid-list in terms of immediate life-threats. An outbreak of measles or meningitis could take hundreds of lives in a matter of weeks from Duk Payuel. Clinic doctors already do weekly surveillance and weekly reports to the Minister of Health on these diseases.

EPI and Deworming Program

In February 2009, the Duk Lost Boys Clinic developed a cold chain supply that enables the Clinic to receive vaccines, which must to be kept cold in order to be effective. With this capability, which isn't available anywhere else in Duk County, the Clinic is able to receive and administer life-saving vaccines through its Every Person Inoculated program. The John Dau Foundation partnered with International Relief & Development to administer a grant from the Basic Services Fund, which helps provide for upkeep of this system and supplies for the EPI program. In 2009, the Clinic vaccinated nearly 4,000 children and pregnant mothers against deadly and debilitating--though easily preventable--diseases.
 
Also through this partnership, the Clinic conducts de-worming for school-aged children and adults throughout Duk County. These worms, which are called helminthes and are transmitted through poor sanitation (i.e., not washing hands or drinking unclean water) infect hundreds of millions of people around the world. The DLBC is in the middle of a program to provide de-worming medication to 20,000 people, and has so far reached 5,000 school-aged children and adults.