22 June 2015 - To raise reproductive health awareness among internally displaced people in the Upper Nile State capital Malakal, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) recently resumed weekly training sessions at the UNMISS protection site.

According to the IOM Clinic Reproductive Assistant, Jennifer Iden, the training was first started in November 2014, but was stopped in 2015 due to renewed fighting in Malakal until it resumed two weeks ago.

She added that many women are attending the training, which focuses on family planning, breast feeding and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and AIDS.

“We appreciate their coming to our facility,” she said. “It is a priority to save newly born babies … We enrolled 900 mothers into the breastfeeding group and the motive is to educate (them) with breastfeeding tips (and) how to maintain health within the family.”

Ms. Iden, who said the IOM clinic handles a minimum of 15 delivery cases weekly, added that health workers also emphasized the need for family planning.

She said family planning was also a vital part of efforts to avoid sexually transmitted infections.

Although the clinic had been upgraded to meet the needs of the community at the protection site, many newly arrived IDPs were not aware of the services provided there, Ms. Iden said.

“It is our responsibility to keep them informed, especially in terms of health care,” she said, adding that the IOM Reproductive Department had formed a group of local peer educators to encourage mothers to report any arising needs in health education, vaccination and hygiene.

“(Delivering babies) in the hospital is important,” said one peer educator, Suzana Othow. “We have to discourage the attitude of home delivery, which has risks like bleeding.”

Another peer educator, Padwat Daniel, said they were learning much from midwives and would spread the message to mothers to go to the clinic to avoid complications during the delivery process.

“Our priority is to raise awareness about issues of rape and report cases so that they are immediately investigated by the health personnel,” she added.