Lainya county of Central Equatoria State received two ambulances from its health partner South Sudan Health Association (SSUHA) through the Health Pool Fund (HPF) on Tuesday.
The county health director, Julius Luate, told Radio Tamazuj that the two ambulances will improve emergency health response in remote payams of the county.
“SSUHA donated these vehicles to the county health department to help in the referral of children and pregnant women for a referral because we don’t have ambulances here,” he said. “The county health department will be the one to take care of these vehicles and this is a big achievement for the county health department and the community.”
Joseph Lokulenge Christopher, the county youth leader, welcomed the donation and urged the county health department to ensure that the ambulances are used for the intended purpose.
Lokulenge also urged the county health department to ensure they maintain the vehicles so that they can serve the community for a long time.
“We appreciate this donation and we are very happy because our pregnant women have been suffering without proper transport to either Yei or Juba for health care because we lacked ambulances here,” he said. “My call to the county health department is that we want to see that these ambulances are taken proper care of and well maintained because today, we have received this donation, and tomorrow maintaining these vehicles becomes another big challenge.”
For his part, Lainya County commissioner Emmanuel Khamis on his social media platform said the move is to improve health care access.
“On behalf of the government and people of Lainya county, I sincerely thank the Health Pooled Fund and SSUHA for the cordial working relationship in complementing government efforts to enhance and improve health services and I further appeal to other partners supporting the health sector to support us with additional medical ambulances so that each PHCC will have its ambulance to easy emergency response and referrals,” he posted.