2 August 2013 - Aiming to reduce maternal mortality rates in Upper Nile State, UNICEF and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) officials donated needed items to the maternity ward at Malakal Teaching Hospital today.

The donation included delivery kits, medicines, contraceptives and treatment for rape, sexually transmitted infection and management of miscarriage as well as complications of abortion.

"These kits ... are very valuable," said Charles Yor Odhong, State Minister of Health. "(They include) life-saving equipment."

UNFPA Coordinator for reproductive health and gender-based violence Milicent Obaso said the kits were to assist in ensuring that women did not die during childbirth.

"No woman should die when bringing a life into this world," she said.