WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE A PEDIATRIC NURSE IN SUDAN RIGHT NOW
Follow-up - Moatinoon
Auatf Mater Jaber, who works in the neonatal unit at Wad Madani Childrens Hospital in Gezira State, southeast-central Sudan, describes how she manages to care for sick babies when medicines are in short supply. “I don’t see children here as cases, but as part of my family and of me.”
Since the outbreak of full-scale armed conflict in April 2023, Wad Madani Childrens Hospital in Sudans Gezira State has been flooded with patients as many displaced families fleeing violence continue to arrive in the area, seeking safety.
"If theres a treatment thats missing, we try to find an alternative," says Auatf Mater Jaber, a pediatric nurse in the hospitals neonatal unit for the past 27 years. "If someone has an extra medicine, we give it to another baby."
Jaber stays at the hospital because transportation to and from home is challenging. She begins each shift with a walk through the NICU to check on each baby — some were delivered early, others were born with complications, all requiring extra care and monitoring.
Jaber takes her time, checking intravenous lines, administering medication, adjusting feeding tubes and oxygen masks and updating records. She makes sure each baby is comfortable.
While mothers will visit the unit occasionally to feed and nurse their little ones, it is Jaber and her colleagues who are there around the clock, taking turns to observe while monitors beep constantly.
"I love working in this department and helping these innocent babies," Jaber says. "I feel their pain, even though they cant complain. By their crying, I can understand how they feel."
Sudan is now the largest child displacement crisis in the world, with 3 million children fleeing widespread violence in search of safety, food, shelter and health care. Most are still in Sudan, while hundreds of thousands are sheltering in sprawling makeshift camps in neighboring countries.
Some 14 million children in Sudan are in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance. Many of them are living in a state of perpetual fear — fear of being killed, injured, recruited or used by armed actors.
In a statement released Nov. 6, UNICEF noted that "[r]eports of conflict-related sexual violence, including rape, have been rampant, and with fighting only intensifying in recent weeks in places like Khartoum, Darfur,and Kordofans, the very real worry is that child rights violations will continue to spike."
So far, UNICEF has received allegations of over 3,100 severe violations, including the killing and maiming of children.
Source: https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/what-its-be-pediatric-nurse-sudan-right-now
