Malakal, South Sudan, The new born baby (no name yet) of mother Sunday John (18) is getting a bath by it's grandmother at the UNICEF supported IMC Maternity ward in the POC in Malakal. ..Sunday and her mother are from Kodok but have spent 2 years in the A

Malakal, South Sudan, The new born baby (no name yet) of mother Sunday John (18) is getting a bath by it's grandmother at the UNICEF supported IMC Maternity ward in the POC in Malakal. ..Sunday and her mother are from Kodok but have spent 2 years in the Abroch IDP camp. Sunday is deaf and mute. She was referred to the Malakal POC because of complications relating to her first birth of a baby boy called Sebit in October 2016 (when she had a C-section.) SebitÕs father left shortly after the birth because of the stigma associated with SundayÕs C-section. ..SundayÕs mother came with her up the river on a boat on the 13 May to be supervised by midwives at the clinic. She signs that the speedboat was very fast, it was her first time on a boat like this. ..The midwives speak sign language and have formed a very strong bond with Sunday. After spending so much time together they are now very close. ..Sunday signs that she is very happy now to have a healthy baby. Now she has both a boy and a girl, this makes her beam with happiness. She desperately wants her babies to be able to go to school. ..Sunday and her mother will return to the camp in Abroch in 2 weeks...Conflict and underdevelopment have plagued South Sudan for decades, leaving its children out of school, malnourished and vulnerable to disease, abuse and exploitation. The prospect of a better future following the countryÕs independence in 2011 was short-lived following the eruption of a civil war in 2013. ..Malnutrition rates are at critical levels. More than 1 million children are malnourished, including 300,000 severely so and at risk of death. The proportion of people who do not know where their next meal is coming from went up from 35 per cent in 2014 to nearly 60 per cent at present, with some areas of the country one step away from famine especially during the lean season...The conflict has also pushed hundreds of thousands of children out of school, with 1 in 3 schools damaged, destroyed, occupied or closed since 2013. South Sudan now has the highest proportion of out-of-school children in the world. More than 2 million children Ð or more than 70 percent of those who should be attending classes Ð are not receiving an education. ..Efforts to aid those in the greatest need are also being hampered. More than 100 aid workers have been killed in the violence since the conflict began in 2013..

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Conflict and underdevelopment have plagued South Sudan for decades, leaving its children out of school, malnourished and vulnerable to disease, abuse and exploitation. The prospect of a better future following the country’s independence in 2011 was short-lived following the eruption of a civil war in 2013.

 

In South Sudan new-born children and their mothers face enormous risks. Pregnant mothers are in danger of giving birth without medical help and in unsanitary conditions. Their children are more likely to die before they reach their fifth birthdays and to experience extreme stress, which can inhibit their long-term emotional and cognitive development.

 

As part of its care to families and pregnant women, in 2018 UNICEF is working to:

•Provide 20,000 pregnant women with access to skilled care at birth. Since January 2018, through UNICEF and its partners, almost 4,000 deliveries have been attended by skilled birth attendants and over 24,000 pregnant women have been counselled and tested for HIV.

•Identify and treat more than 200,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition; provide preventative nutrition services to more than 1 million mothers and caregivers of children under five. Some 89% of children treated at OTPs (outreach treatment programme) fully recover.

•Provide 800,000 people with access to safe water

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