Sometimes a human life depends on having the right person, in the right place, at the right time.

Yngve Wiik, Chief Superintendent of Norwegian Police, an officer with sixteen years of police experience, started his deployment with UNMISS in April 2016. Before joining the police, he worked for two years as a paramedic in the Ambulance Service.

On the 9th June, around 2100 hours, Yngve was conducting a vehicle patrol in the Juba PoC site area when he heard another UNPOL officer reporting on the radio to the Tactical Operations Centre that there was a woman about to deliver a child.

“I rushed there and found an exhausted young woman, about 20 years old, ready to give birth. The ambulance had already been called, but I realized that there was not enough time, and that the child would be delivered right there, at the gate,” Yngve recalled.

He laid the woman on his raincoat, utilized gloves from an emergency medical kit and within a couple of minutes the child was born. “It was a beautiful baby girl, healthy and crying.”

Yngve fixed the umbilical cord and when the ambulance arrived the baby was separated from her mother, Sarah John, and both were taken to the PoC-1 Clinic. Subsequently, Yngve found Sarah’s husband, Franco in another area and drove him to the clinic.

Sarah and Franco came to the the UNMISS compound in January of 2014 among thousands of South Sudanese seeking shelter and protection. At that time, Sarah was already pregnant with her first son, Ramney, who was also born in the Juba PoC site. 

Yngve said, “For me this was a very special situation. Even though I’ve had experience with child-delivery, it has never happened under such extreme conditions,”

Police Advisor Wiik periodically visits Sarah’s family in the PoC site, checking on their health status and providing baby care products.

Sarah named her daughter Happy. They are both doing well.