The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to South Sudan and Sudan, Ali Bin Hassan Jaffar has pledged continuous support to the eye treatment centre at Juba Teaching Hospital (JTH).
Ambassador Jaffar visited the eye treatment centre at the country’s main referral facility Tuesday and he promised to support the health system in South Sudan.
“This is our mission as humans, we are willing to support you and support everyone in need, not only in the areas such as the eyes, heart, and kidney but also on all other health-related problems,” he said. “In the coming days and months, the operations in the heart, kidney and eyes shall continue. We hope our relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and South Sudan will continue.”
During the visit, many beneficiaries from the Saudi-supported eye treatment centre at Juba Teaching Hospital lauded the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their support.
Samuel Reech, a beneficiary, thanked the team for restoring his eyesight.
“I thank this organization from Mecca which is doing the operation for the eyes. The people who did for us this good deed God will bless them. Our government should get a piece of land so these doctors from Saudi could live there and do the operations from here. These people who have come here (South Sudan) should have their homes here so they can operate from here instead of our people going to Khartoum and other countries for eye operations,” he said.
Joyce Barnaba, also a beneficiary said, “First of all, I want to thank the government of South Sudan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for bringing for us enough eye doctors from Saudi so that they can do eye operations for us here. Many of us women of South Sudan can not afford the cost of eye operation by ourselves because we don’t have money for paying the bills. But this support that has come for us today, we as women of South Sudan thank the Republic of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their love for us.”
Another beneficiary, Peter Yeni hailed the Saudi government and people saying many South Sudanese have been relieved from going abroad for special eye treatment.
“If someone has helped you with treatment like this is not a simple thing. Just imagine how expensive it would be if you were to go for an operation in Khartoum or India, or Egypt but now God has brought us here. We thank God and we thank the people who are doing this operation,” he said.
About 19 Sudanese eye specialists arrived in Juba last week to treat eye diseases and perform about 400 eye surgeries. The doctors are expected to go to Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal State for the same mission after Juba.