A UK-led donor initiative referred to as the ‘Health Pooled Fund’ headed to South Sudan’s Unity State this week, pledging to fund training for health cadres, for drugs and for other primary care services in the state.

The fund, which is supported by the UK, Australia, Canada, Sweden and the European Union, is managed by contracted agents of the UK Department for International Development.

Fund officials held a workshop with state health officials in Bentiu on Wednesday. Dr. John Tabang, a senior official at the health ministry in Bentiu, told Radio Tamazuj that the meeting was part of preparations ahead of implementation of the fund’s projects in the state.

He said that the fund will donate toward building clinics, providing medicines, training health cadres, and raising health awareness among the citizens. “Practically it will begin by July this year but all these activities are arrangements before the implementation,” Tabang said of the workshop.

It is expected that the fund will be active for three and a half years. It will operate not only in Unity State but also in the four states of Bahr el Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria State.