A group of youth in Tore Payam of Yei River County in Central Equatoria State have mobilized over 400,000 South Sudanese Pounds in a fundraising initiative to support health services in the area.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday from Juba, Christopher Tahrir, the Information Secretary of Tore youth in Juba, said the initiative is to support the provision of health services, including first-aid kits, emergency drugs and other medication for the most vulnerable groups in Tore Payam.

“Tore health facilities have been instrumental in delivering affordable and quality services to hundreds of people over the past years. However, following the conflict in 2016, the health infrastructure has been vandalised. Efforts to improve access to health services have been put on hold because of insecurity,” he said.

“We thought as the youth that there are many ways of how we can address these challenges. So we came up with the idea of raising money from our own sons and daughters [of Tore payam] so that we will be able to support the health facility in Tore, where our people are vulnerable. It is difficult for our people to come all the way to Yei to access health services. Whenever a woman goes into labour in pain or someone falls sick, it is always difficult for someone to access health services in Yei. So we have so far raised an amount of 437,000 South Sudanese Pounds, and there are also some of our youth who will contribute in kind to support,” Christopher added.

Charity Durukia, a mother of four who recently came to Yei town seeking medical treatment, has expressed her joy in the initiative that the youth have come up with and that it will help support expectant mothers and children in Tore Payam.

“I am happy with what our youth are doing by joining their hands together, especially we as mothers and children. Things were so difficult. The distance from Tore to Yei is far, and if a woman wants to give birth at night, no motorcycle, no car at night, it becomes difficult,” Durukia explained.

Simon Taban, the Secretary of Tore Youth in Juba, has called on all youth from Tore Payam across South Sudan and those in the diaspora to contribute generously toward this initiative and make it a success story.

“We continuously encourage our youth, especially those in Yei, Juba, those outside the country and all those that come across this initiative to help us and to make this initiative succeed,” Taban requested.

Taban further appealed to aid agencies and the Central Equatoria State authorities to reconsider Tore Payam in service delivery programs.

“We are again asking our county and the state authorities to make sure that these people down there, they need their help. Local community need services since we know that right from the time of the crisis, things have not been good and that the community has been vulnerable’’.

Tore Payam is located 49 miles west of Yei River County. It is one of four payams that make up Yei River County. Tore Payam borders South Sudan’s Lantoto National game park. To the northwest of Tore Payam is Maridi County of Western Equatoria State. It shares a national border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to the south.

South Sudan has some of the worst health indicators in the world and international NGOs mostly fill a critical gap in healthcare financing in the country.