By Ephraim Modi D.S
The government and Action Against Hunger_ (ACF) held a conference yesterday in Juba to quicken and end hunger in the country.
The event was organized by ACF, attended by government officials, where many activities took place with the them ‘Innovate, Collaborate and Accelerate towards Zero Hunger’.
Speaking to members during the opening of the event, the Undersecretary in Ministry of Health Victoria Anib said the event was advantageous for her ministry as cases of starvation climbed, triggered by conflicts and natural disasters in country.
“…This meeting of today which is organized by Action Against Hunger_ (ACF) is important for the ministry of health because malnutrition is common in this country, a lot of children are dying from nutrition related conditions…. because of the conflicts and environment conditions in this country, a lot of people are now food insecure,” Anib said.
Anib lamented that from the perspective of ministry of health, it was a privilege for the ministry to work with ACF and other agencies that made them acquire knowledge from the innovative presentations done during the event.
“We are very much happy to partner with ACF and other partners and learnt from the innovative they have presented today,” She added.
She said the subject matter in the country is something that is uncontrollable not even by anyone but has urged all partners to toil mutual and put proper use of the accessible possessions.
“Like as I said, this issue is environmental condition, is beyond anybody’s control even if the NGOs are there with this flooding, there’s not much you can do. It is nature, it’s something that no one has control on, we just have to coordinate and do effective collaboration and use the resources efficiently,” Said Anib.
The deputy head of department for nutrition at ACF Matata John Waran the situation blew a trumpet at areas of their concern that alerted them to put some innovation skills which is basically on rice and trees plantation that has helped people in the affected areas.
“We innovated rice plantation, rice that grow in water to help the community because currently in Old Pangak especially Pagwir, people live in water, people there eat lilies and our people there on ground came up with those innovations and we are here today to showcase we been doing in those locations,” She said.
“In Warap, we also had innovation especially tree planting that gives us food like mangos, guovas, and so many others. We also engaged the communities to grow vegetables especially in dry seasons. And those are our pillars.
Waran said their programs at those areas begun with an emergency respond determined by cluster and health ministry through IPC analysis and severity and thereafter followed by setting up a base and implement our programs.
“Basically all our statics sites started with emergency and that’s determined by the cluster and the ministry of health, usually what we consider is the IPC analysis, the severity of those places and then when we deploy our emergency team and then after a period and no any other partner move it, then we take over and we implement our static programs in the area,” Anib said.
He said “In health, we are doing both preventive and curative we do health education in all those communities, we do our reach team that move to the community and do awareness to create demand for service in the community…tell them about our health services so that they can seek for health treatment, under curative…we treat malnourish children with complications and we do those treatment of children with those cases, and we also support the government systems like in Gogorial East.
He said ACF have capacity to respond in all sectors of their concern as they are committed to helping communities that need their services.
Waran said that there are areas that completely lack services of humanitarian agencies which they have managed to deliver assistance in.
“We work in some of the locations where no any other partner can reach to, like Pagwir currently actually I think we are the only partner working there and the community is actually happy of what we are doing, they are very supportive, even if we tell them do something together, they are always very positive,” He revealed.
During the event, the Program Director of ACF Josiah Mannah called for universal efforts from the public be put to certify such problems of famishment in the country come to an end
“This is the commitment and responsibility of all, from the government, from the other actors that are working in Pangak and other services providers… we strongly believe that if we work together, we will be able to address (the issue of the hunger) together,” Mannah added.
Meanwhile, Ayak Akuei Wal, one of the beneficiaries of the inventions created by ACF in those communities praised them for their tremendous efforts that has changed her life.
“ACF supported me with garden tools and I started some garden work and it has supported me to send my children to school because I am able to sell the products I harvested. We are really happy and thank you (ACF) for supporting us,” Wal commended during the event.