MaximsNewsNetwork: SUDAN CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

MaximsNewsNetwork: 14 August 2009 - UNMIS: The UN Mission in Sudan hands over a new six-room building that will house the outpatient department of the Al Sabah Juba Children's Hospital.

On Thursday (13 August), the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) Sector I head Winnie Babihuga handed over a new, six-room building that will house the outpatient department of the Al Sabah Juba Childrens Hospital.

The brick structure was constructed by 35 soldiers belonging to the Bangladesh Engineering Company. Funded by a Quick Impact Project grant of $25,000, work began on June 1 and finished on August 6.

The project was initiated by the UNMIS Public Information Office in Juba as a way of commemorating the International Day of U.N. Peacekeepers, which took place on May 29.

On hand for the formal inauguration of the facility were the hospitals executive director Dr. Hassen Challong Lokiri and its medical director Dr. Justin Bruno. Representing the Central Equatoria State Ministry of Health was its director general, Dr. Hilary Okanyi.

I want to express our joy in handing over this project, said Ms. Babihuga amid ululating and applause at the afternoon ceremony.

SOUNDBITE (English) Winnie Babihuga, Head Office Sector one, UNMIS:
We were here to celebrate the peace keepers day for this year on the 29th of May and the theme for that day was power to empower and I believe all of us can now see the kind of empowerment that this structure will create and also what has come out of a partnership

Preliminary work on the building began in the 1990s but was halted in 2000. Prior to the completion of the rehabilitation project, children seeking treatment at the hospital had been forced to wait in a courtyard on the hospital premises and endure the rainfall and intense heat that typify weather conditions in Juba.

SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Justin Bruno, Medial Director, Juba Childrens Hospital:
From today onwards be sure all the children who come to this hospital are not again going to be washed by rain again.

In his remarks, Dr. Okanyi of the state ministry of health highlighted the swift pace of construction. We dont have strong enough words to express our gratitude for this work done by UNMIS, he said.

SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Hilary Okanyi, Director General, Ministry of Health:
You have demonstrated to us that you really have come to help the people and make peace be felt and seen.

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