28 August 2013 - To improve living conditions at a Jonglei orphanage, UNMISS South Korean engineers donated needed items today to the Orphan, Trauma and Healing Centre in the capital Bor.

The items included 172 pairs of shoes, 170 mosquito nets, 170 blankets, 30 beds, 60 desks and chairs, 10 footballs, six blackboards, nine solar panels, two brass bells and 170 bags of construction cement.

During the donation, Moses Gatkuoth, Chairperson of the Committee on Peace, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at Jonglei State Legislative Assembly, said the items had increased the children's morale.

"This type of donation clearly demonstrates that UN peacekeepers are here not only to keep peace and stability but also to boost the morale of such destitute children, who are in need of attention and encouragement all the time," he said.

Peter Yien Reath, director of the center, said, "These children have suffered from malaria due to lack of mosquito nets and beds... for quite a long time and I think now we will be able to solve that problem."

South Korean Commander Col. Ko Dongjum, expressed hope that the items would improve conditions in the centre and tighten ties between it and UN peacekeepers.

The South Koreans have also assisted the centre by leveling two football fields, flattening flood-prone ground, renovating children's rooms and constructing two recreational areas inside the compound.

In addition, they have carried out medical checkups on the children every week and provided them with lunch once a month since May.

According to Director Reath, the centre, set up in 2012 at the peak of inter-communal violence in the state, has sheltered 170 orphans who lost their immediate families during conflicts in 2011-2012.

The Bor Orphan, Trauma and Healing Center is run by South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church.