Christian Mission Aid CMA - Action Against Hunger

5.I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.I.1. ContextAthoc: Baidit and Jalle II Payams are located in South Bor County in the Jonglei Upper Nile Region. The Countycomprises of six payams namely: Jalle, Baidit, Makuach, Anyidi, Kolnyang and Bor town. The river Mabor Golcuts across the county and provides grazing areas, water and fishing points. The Nile River on the eastern sideof the County offers good fishing opportunities and grazing areas for cattle. The area is generally flat and madeof black cotton and sandy soils. The inhabitants belong to the Dinka Bor clan.The County faced the last insecurity incident in 2000 when the militia group made aerial bombardments inAnyidi, Makuach and Jalle payams; unspecified number of people was injured and properties were destroyedduring the incident. During the recent years, apart from sporadic cattle raids in the location, security has beenrelatively stable.The NGO’s operating in the location are: CMA, WHO, FAO, CRS, Southern Sudan Agricultural revitalizationProgram (SARP), Penykou Agency for Relief and Development (PARAD), WFP and CARE. CMA operates sixPrimary Health Care Units (PHCUs) and one Primary Health Care Center (PHCC) that provides in-patientservices and tuberculosis clinic. The PHCU’s are located in Tong, Makol cuei, Akuei Deng, Apoor, Mathiang,and Kolmarek. There are three non-functional PHCUs located in Kuei, Yolmuchel and Jalle II. CRS, FAO andSARP provide capacity building in fishing. WFP provides relief food; the last distribution was done in April 2005.WHO provides polio vaccinations services. CARE and PARAD implement water project, while GTZ isimplementing road rehabilitation and dyke construction projects supported by WFP.Households have access to potable water from borehole facilities; however, in some locations, households gettheir water from unsafe sources, such as swamps and rivers. A few latrines were observed mainly in church,local authority and health centre compounds. Waste disposal in both payams is poor.Food stocks were not observed in most of the visited households during the time of survey. According to thecommunity, the last harvest in October/ November 2004 was poor as compared to 2003 harvest due to laterains, heavy wind and attack from birds. This concurs with STARBASE 2004 report, which estimated that poorhouseholds in Bor were to experience a 15- 20% food deficit. The most affected are the pure small-scale cropfarming households. The community reported that the maize harvested last October had been depleted andwere surviving on the little sorghum harvested in November 2004 and on wild food. The last WFP distributionwas done in April 2005 and the community reported that these have been exhausted as well.Majority of families seek medical attention from local traditional healers first and only consult at the PHCC/Uwhen the condition is severe. Hygiene and sanitary practices are generally poor in the community; there is highprevalence of diarrhoeal diseases as reported by CMA..I.2. JustificationACF-USA conducted a nutritional survey in Padak in May 2002 which revealed GAM and SAM rates of 37.7%and 6.6%, respectively. In March 2003, the nutrition survey by TEARFUND showed malnutrition rates of 20.8%GAM and 2.4% SAM. The ANA report 2004/5 indicates that food security in Bor will be relatively stable due tomarket access, fishing opportunities, and enhanced income. However, poor households are likely to experiencefood deficits due to declined household production and low purchasing power.In May this year, CMA reported 17 cases of severe malnutrition in its PHCC and raised this concern with ACF-USA; consequently, a nutritional survey was carried out.