Emergency Response in South Sudan

For Easter, a few of the team had the idea that we should buy a goat to celebrate. But of course if we are roasting a goat, we have to invite people to share it with us. So the idea spiraled and soon we had a plan to have an Easter celebration with all of our neighbors at the world vision compound, and all of the drivers that have helped us with the vaccination campaign. After receiving approval for the purchase of two goats (a purchase this extravagant has to be approved in Juba), a couple people set out to the auction to buy two goats. I had wanted to go with, but I was quickly reminded that if the seller saw a foreigner, the price would be double. So I had to stay back. But soon the team returned after trying a few auctions and finally finding two goats for a reasonable price. The ladies were tasked with preparing side dishes (ugali, cooked greens, etc). Since I'm not proficient in cooking local foods, I simply made popcorn to snack on while everyone was waiting and assisted ...

For me, the last few months have been all about measles. As our team wrapped up the campaign in Gogrial West County for 6-59 month old children, we were given the green light to expand our vaccination to cover some remote missed villages, and children up to 15 years old. This meant starting again from the beginning and trying to reach far more people. We were excited though, because more vaccinated people means a better chance to control the outbreak. So we got the vaccines, did some refresher training with the vaccination teams, and set to work. I've gotten a few questions about how a measles campaign works, so I'll lay it out. As Medair, our job is planning, support, training, and supervision. Usually, we aren't the people actually giving the vaccine. But together with the State Ministry of Health, we had to recruit and train 99 teams people who would be vaccinating. However, the vaccinators are only one person on the team. Each team has 8 people, one person to ...