South Sudan National Health Minster  Yolanda Awel Deng along with Western Bahr el Ghazal State Governor Sarah Cleto Rial last Friday inaugurated a newly built modern mortuary at the Wau Teaching Hospital.

The modern well-equipped mortuary was a donation from the South Sudan Chagai Foundation, a charity organization run by a young South Sudanese female philanthropist, Chagia Morwel.

The new mortuary with a capacity of 18 refrigerators will be managed by the national and state health ministries.

Speaking during the official opening of the facility, Chagai Morwel said the mortuary is a sign of the people of South Sudan working together to champion development.

“We need to work together for this country and we need to put our differences aside and only focus on how we can advance this nation forward,” she said. “The Chagai Foundation also responds to emergency crises. When we were approached three years ago and told that Wau Teaching Hospital does not have a mortuary and used a container for dead bodies.”

“We need to dignify those who passed on and that is why the Chagai Foundation decided to construct this mortuary,” Morwel added.

For her part, Western Bahr el Ghazal State Governor Cleto appreciated the Chagai Foundation and leading businessmen, Bibi Ali, and Eng. Wally Saeed for providing equipment for the mortuary.

“I want to thank all those who put their hands together and contributed the money for this mortuary at Wau Teaching Hospital. We have to keep it clean, to standard, and the governor’s resident is just at the right there and sometimes there is a bad smell but at this time it will not happen,” she said. “We do not want the power to the mortuary to be cut off. The state will sit down and see how much is needed and we will do our part to contribute fuel for the generator.”

For her part, National Health Minister Yolanda Awel Deng said the new mortuary will help with the problem of keeping dead bodies before burial.

“I am grateful to be here today as part of this event for so many reasons. My mother died in this hospital last year and we were unable to keep to body for long because that container there had other bodies and it was not in good condition. I was able to take the body of my mother home for about three days,” she said. “This event reminds us of the holistic care that we are supposed to be giving as a national government. We need to take care of our living and we need to take care of the dead because spiritually in African tradition, you take care of your dead. After all, they are our assessors.”

Deng said that looking after and marinating of the new mortuary and other facilities across the country is the responsibility of the people of South Sudan but that the country is still facing challenges with accountability and management.