The Southern Sudan Healthcare Organization (SSHCO) was the dream of one of the Lost Boys, Dr. Jacob Atem, who at the age of five had to flee his village because of the civil war in at that time Sudan. He lost his parents and traveled like many other boys all over the country. Some of these boys traveled east and some south. They all ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya for 10 long years. Jacob was one of the lucky ones who was resettled in the United States. Though he spoke little English, he worked hard and graduated from high school even though many told him he could not do it. But he went on to get his Ph.D. and then went on to do post-doctoral work at John Hopkins University.
While still in undergraduate studies, he started SSHCO because he wanted to give back to his homeland and to all who were not able to be as fortunate as he was to become a citizen of the United States. He had six goals or what he calls the Seven Pillars of his non-profit: health, education, agriculture or food security, livelihoods, community emergency.
HEALTH: Since its creation, the clinic has provided unprecedented levels of healthcare to the people in Maar and the surrounding areas. The clinic has provided thousands of people with a better life. In 2020 the massive flooding resulted in a large portion of the Twic East population moving to the Mangalla displacement camp 40 minutes from Juba. SSHCO was one of the first to provide medical help to the 94,000 people. Mobile clinics were set up and several staff from our Maar Clinic worked in this new location.
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FOOD SECURITY / AGRICULTURE: Our world leaders have consistently identified both healthcare and food security as the two greatest risk factors in South Sudan. SSHCO exist as an organization to bring health and hope to where it is lost, and basic nutritional needs are fundamentally intertwined with this mission. Through its partnerships with organizations and subject matter experts, SSHCO is dedicated to facilitating the training and development of agricultural entrepreneurs and logistical solutions in South Sudan that will increase seasonal resilience and growth.
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: You can’t talk about sustainable development without talking about funding. As an organization, SSHCO achieves its mission in two ways. The first is achieved by filling a critical gap in basic health services. The second is achieved through partnerships with local community members. These partnerships are designed to create sustainable small businesses that promote a healthy local economy, which then fuels funding to the clinic. These two methods are intended to function concurrently. Working with other groups that can provide assistance in starting savings and loan groups, SSHCO hopes to make the community at the displacement camp become self-sufficient and begin steps to funding their own schools.
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COMMUNITY: This pillar includes the improvement of regional security measures, small business support, and planning for a new community in the displacement camp. SSHCO believes that the creation of lasting relationships with community leaders, and the various tribal chiefs is irreplaceable in the accomplishment of SSHCO's stated goals. The solutions that it proposes, and the many more to come in the future, must be based on the design and works of those who they directly impact: the citizens. As such, SSHCO will form key relationships with committee members who oversee each of its projects. This creates community ownership of community solutions, as opposed to foreign ownership of foreign solutions. S.U.C.C.E.S.S. sees that having the community commitment in working together to provide schools in the camp is the model that will give the community ownership and commitment in maintaining the school in the future.