STRIVE APR - JUN 2018 | Page 18

Guns to Garden Tools
By Dr. Jack Hickel
How does someone survive in South Sudan, where the
running water, electricity, sanitation, or infrastructure. There
most recent civil war is entering its fifth year? It is the world’s
was very little food in the market and only one well for clean
most failed state, where famine is raging and the refugee crisis water, with long lines of women waiting for their turn at the
is the biggest in Africa. Unfortunately, many do not survive.
pump. Simple mud huts provided the most basic of shelter.
Tens of thousands have been killed, and millions have become
Shortly after arriving, I was taken to the small clinic,
refugees.
which was really just a room with 10 beds. It was in terrible
Thus far, 92 aid workers have been killed during the war.
disrepair, filthy and overflowing with the sick, injured, and
Others have been kidnapped and held hostage. How does
suffering. Some were moaning. Others were too weak to cry.
someone make a positive impact in the most dangerous place
Most of the patients had to sleep in the dirt outside. A lucky
on the planet for working humanitarian aid groups? Through
few got a bed, but a blanket was rare.
a lot of hard work, guts, and touch of craziness... for which
I witnessed unmet humanitarian needs everywhere I
Alaskans are well suited.
went. There was a lone doctor, but where were the aid groups?
In November of 2007, I was flying in a Cessna caravan to
I soon learned that the aid organizations felt Old Fangak
Old Fangak, a village in South Sudan located in the Sudd, the
was too remote and inaccessible to easily help. There was
largest swamp in the world,
no infrastructure, and even
and one of the most remote
basic operational needs were
and impoverished places in
too expensive. The Sudanese
Africa. I had been flying for
government, and the world,
hours with few signs of civi-
had turned their backs on this
lization, only the occasional
forgotten place. My heart was
and scattered mud huts. As the
torn. Who is going to stand up
plane banked left I caught site
for these people?
of the village on the banks of
I spent a challenging nine
the infamous Nile River. After
days in Old Fangak, assessing
a bumpy landing on a dirt
the situation and caring for
strip, I was greeted by dozens
hundreds of patients. During
of Sudanese children, curiously
this time nine children – one
crowding around to see this
for every day we spent there –
stranger from a faraway land.
died of malaria, kala azar, diar-
I was met by Dr. Jill Sea-
rhea, and malnutrition. When
Photos Courtesy of the Alaskan Sudan Medical Project © 2018
man, a physician from Bethel
I boarded the small plane to
who had been working in Sudan for many years. Together we
depart, I looked at Dr. Jill, tears threatening to well up in both
climbed into a waiting skiff for a short trip up the Nile and
our eyes, and I pledged that I would return with help. Alas-
arrived at a village of about 5,000 people, which lacked roads,
kans would build the village a new and bigger health center.
18 APR-JUN 2018