Healthcare in Bor has been given a significant and timely boost worth some 220,000 dollars: a new out-patient department, an ambulance, medical equipment, medicines, generators and a special negative pressure tent for COVID-19 patients.

“The original outpatient department was very old and in dangerously precarious condition, and with both the pandemic and waterborne diseases because of persistent floods the hospital really needed to strengthen its capacity,” said Mary Akech, a Bor resident.

Ms. Akech had joined local dignitaries to attend the handing over of the new facilities, funded by the people of South Korea through the country’s contingent of engineering peacekeepers based in Jonglei State.

The new building, featuring an emergency intake, rooms for treatment and monitoring, a pharmacy and much-needed office space, left national Minister of Health Elizabeth Acuei Yor duly impressed.

“It is very beautiful indeed,” she noted as she delivered her remarks at the ceremony.

In recent years, the peacekeeping mission has made several contributions to strengthen healthcare in Jonglei State, including the construction of a critical care centre for COVID-19 patients and a dyke to prevent floods from damaging the hospital. Ambulances and medicines have also been handed over on a few occasions.

The peacekeeping engineers from South Korea, perhaps most known for their frequent road repair work, have engaged in other activities and services as well. Solar-powered streetlights, mobile clinics and its longstanding vocational training centre are notable examples.

The Bor State Hospital, which receives patients not only from Jonglei State but also from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area and Lakes State, was established in 1952-1954. Despite the addition of the new out-patient department, the health facility is still faced with several challenges, including an overcrowded maternity ward and lack of specialized paediatricians, gynaecologists, surgeons and obstetricians.