An incapacitated hospital is a sad sight. After five years out of service, it gives disgrace a face. Unless, of course, Indian peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan comes to the rescue. Such has been the fortunate fate of the Jonglei Health Institute in Bor.

Applauding at a ceremony to mark the re-opening of the Institute, Joyce Akol, perhaps daydreaming of one day donning a shiny white nurse outfit, smiled for a long while standing in the crowd, ostensibly signaling her approval.

“I welcome the re-opening of the Jonglei Health Institute. It opens an opportunity for me and many of my friends to get trained as health personnel and acquire skills that can provide us with a livelihood and employment, in the main hospital here or anywhere in the country,” she later said, adding:

“It also indicates that slowly, peace is returning to our country.”

The Institute, like the Bor hospital itself, was vandalized and abandoned at the outset of the conflict that broke out in December 2013. While the hospital has long since been resuscitated, its sister facility was left to rot.

A government request for assistance has now, at long last, breathed new life into the once proud institute. Electricity, a water supply system and repaired generators will hopefully make sure that its heart keeps beating at a healthy pace for generations to come. With a one hundred per cent increase of its fleet of ambulances to top off the renovation work, the Jonglei Health Institute looks poised to keep more patients’ hearts going as well.

“This second one will be dedicated to the use of the maternity and children’s wing,” said Ms. Rachel Amuor Pach, the local Minister of Health,  referring to the new, lifesaving automobile.

At the end of the month, the health facility will start training forty recruits to become nurses, midwives and other clinical staff.

Rebecca Yar, who happened to attend the inaugural festivities as she was visiting a patient at the hospital, foresees a bright future as a result of the upcoming courses.

“They [the forty people to receive the training] will provide better healthcare and treatment to patients,” she believes.

Bor resident Reuben Madol was also happy about the prospect of having a good number of fellow citizens learning new professions, for more than one reason.

“The time when the youth roam the streets and idle about is coming to an end as some of them will find their way here to gain skills that will improve their lives.”