Helping Hands : Two Syracuse-based doctors travel to Sudan this week to improve health care
John Dau, a nationally-known speaker, is also known as a ‘Lost Boy.’
When the North Sudanese government said it would kill any man from South Sudan, regardless of age, many boys fled their villages to avoid the war. This group of boys received the moniker, ‘Lost Boys.’
Dau escaped and eventually relocated to Syracuse. He decided to give back to his home village by setting up one of the only health clinics in Duk Payuel, Sudan.
‘There were no medical facilities for hundreds of miles around in any direction,’ said Sean Herron, donor relations coordinator of the John Dau Foundation.
Two Syracuse-based doctors arrived at the Duk Lost Boys Clinic on Tuesday. Barbara Connor, an emergency room physician from Auburn Regional Medical Center, and David Reed, a doctor at State University of New York Upstate Medical University, will remain in Duk Payuel for a week.
Connor and Reed are also two of the medical directors at the clinic.
Herron, a sophomore policy studies and economics major at Syracuse University, said that the two doctors will be at Duk Payuel to teach rather than treat.
‘When they go to the clinic, they go to oversee the operations going on over there,’ he said. ‘They train the staff of the clinic.’
Only a handful of physicians and nurses work at the Lost Boys Clinic, Herron said. Connor and Reed are teaching them to use new equipment supplied to the clinic. He said this week the doctors are teaching women, from surrounding villages, safe ways to deliver babies.
William Coplin, chairman of the board of directors of the John Dau Foundation and a public affairs professor at SU, said that complications from pregnancies are one of the several causes of death in the region.
‘Before the clinic, there was nothing,’ Coplin said. ‘Two out of five kids died before they were 5 years old. Mothers died from complicated pregnancies. Measles kills people in these countries. Now there are measles vaccines, all kinds of vaccines.’
The clinic opened in May 2007. Since then, more than 20,000 people have been treated from several surrounding towns, according to the John Dau Foundation Web site.
Coplin said the fact that the clinic has stayed opened is proof of its success.
‘A lot of times, these Lost Boys will build a clinic, but then they are just empty,’ he said. ‘They lose funding, so they can’t run it. This is the only one in the area that actually runs and is supported.’
Funds from supporters have been the driving force for the foundation. Actress Nicole Kidman donated money to the foundation after narrating the movie, ‘God Grew Tired of Us,’ the story of Dau’s journey as a Lost Boy. Angelina Jolie has also given funds to support the foundation. Coplin said that it takes around $20,000 a month to support the clinic, a large sum from a non-profit organization.
‘Our public support is our only source of revenue,’ said Herron, the donor relations coordinator of the foundation. ‘We get our money from donations and grants. Our annual amount probably comes up to around $400,000, and the majority of the money goes to the clinic.’
Herron said people are grateful for the services that the clinic has provided for them.
‘There’s a huge celebration,’ he said. ‘When doctors come down there, or a plane comes with medicine, there are people standing beside the runway. They’re all cheering. The clinic is something that they’re really proud to have.’
Published on December 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm
