Tears of Joy in South Sudan

One of our directors, Mark Mosely, just returned from South Sudan. Mark oversees our procurement of donated goods and is involved in managing hundreds of overseas shipments each year, and he arrived back in the U.S. with great news about our recent emergency medical deliveries!

But first, some background:

The civil unrest that has shaken South Sudan following its independence from the north has left doctors and hospitals without basic supplies and infrastructure they need to treat patients. As a result, people have been needlessly dying. In response, we recently rushed three Emergency Health Kits into the country. Each kit includes enough medicines and supplies to treat 10,000 people for 90 days.

Now here’s the exciting part: Despite the breakdown of law and order, the supplies were successfully received by our in-country partner, Catholic Medical Mission Board, and delivered to their destinations without any damage or theft whatsoever! As you read this, pregnant mothers and the sick and injured are being treated with the Cross Catholic Outreach supplies.

One local physician broke down in tears. He was so glad to finally have the equipment he needed. He told Mark he hadn’t had good access to supplies for over two years, and people were literally dying in his arms because of the shortage.

Sr. Laura Gemignani, a Comboni Sister working at a South Sudanese hospital, told us, “We’ve had to stand by and watch people get sicker each day. Many were coming from surrounding clinics who sent them to us because they had no drugs to treat them. In commitment to Christ, we must treat these people within our program, no matter how crowded, if they cannot be treated somewhere else…Thank you for helping us do this.”

What a great testimony to what God is doing in South Sudan! As Mark says, “The provision of these medicines and medical supplies is faith in action.”

-Tony M.