Juba, the capital of South Sudan, is a city of contrasts. Government ministries, international NGO offices, and growing commercial activity sit alongside sprawling informal settlements where families lack access to clean water, basic sanitation, and essential healthcare. In these underserved neighborhoods, the gap between official health policy and day-to-day health reality is vast.
St. Mary's Global Foundation operates several interconnected health programs in and around Juba, each designed to address specific gaps that we identified through direct community consultation. Here is an overview of what we are doing and why.
Maternal and Child Health
South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world — an estimated 789 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to fewer than 20 in most high-income countries. Most of these deaths are preventable with access to skilled birth attendants, prenatal care, and emergency obstetric services.
Our maternal health program connects pregnant women in underserved areas to prenatal care services, educates families on birth preparedness, and works to ensure that women have access to skilled attendance at delivery. We partner with local health facilities and train community health workers to identify high-risk pregnancies early and facilitate timely referrals.
Child survival is equally central to our work. Malnutrition, malaria, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia are the leading killers of children under five in South Sudan. Our child health initiatives include nutrition screening and supplementation for children showing signs of acute malnutrition, community education on childhood illness recognition, and support for vaccination access in communities where health facility reach is limited.
Community Health Workers: The Backbone of Primary Care
One of the most cost-effective and evidence-backed interventions in global health is the community health worker (CHW) model. CHWs are members of the community — often women — who are trained to provide basic health education, early detection of illness, referral support, and ongoing follow-up for families in their immediate area.
Because CHWs live in the communities they serve, they can reach families that formal health facilities cannot. They speak the local language, understand the cultural context, and have established relationships of trust. When a mother is reluctant to bring a sick child to a clinic, a trusted community health worker can make the difference between that child receiving care or not.
Our CHW training program includes modules on maternal and child health, nutrition, malaria prevention, water and sanitation, and basic first aid. We provide CHWs with the supplies they need — thermometers, rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, oral rehydration salts — and offer ongoing supervision and support.
Clean Water Access
Clean water is not a separate issue from health — it is a precondition for it. Contaminated water is a primary driver of diarrheal disease, which is among the top causes of death in children under five in South Sudan. It also drives cholera outbreaks that can spread rapidly through densely populated informal settlements.
Our water and sanitation work focuses on providing clean water access points in communities that currently rely on unsafe sources, educating families on safe water storage and handling, and promoting basic hygiene practices — particularly handwashing — that dramatically reduce disease transmission.
The results of clean water access are felt almost immediately in communities. Diarrheal illness decreases. Children who were previously chronically ill begin to thrive. School attendance improves because children and their caregivers are not debilitated by illness. The benefits cascade in multiple directions at once.
Integrating Health and Education
In every community where we work, our health and education programs are designed to reinforce each other. Schools with good sanitation facilities and health education components see better health outcomes among students. Families that receive health support from our community health workers are more engaged with our education programs. The trust we build through health services opens doors for conversations about school enrollment.
This integration is a deliberate feature of our model, not an accident. We have learned from other organizations' experience — and from our own — that siloed interventions rarely sustain their impact. When health and education are addressed together, within a framework of community ownership and trust, the results are transformative.
What Your Support Makes Possible
Every health initiative we run is funded by donations and grants from people and organizations who believe in this work. A donation of $50 provides a community health worker with supplies to serve her community for a month. $100 supports prenatal care visits for two mothers through delivery. $250 provides clean water access equipment for a household.
If you want to support our health programs directly, consider making a donation today. Every contribution, at every level, makes a difference in the lives of families in Juba who are working hard to build healthier futures for their children.