St Mary’s Church at Hemyock welcomed its Church Mission Society mission partner, Dr Nicci Maxwell.
The church has been supporting Nicci for several years – initially at Potter’s Village in Kisoro, Uganda, but she came to update the congregation on her more recent work in South Sudan.
It is one of the world’s poorest nations with among the highest rates of maternal and newborn deaths.
Nicci is a paediatrician and she has been working in Juba, the capital, for almost 16 months.
She divides her time between the neonatal unit at the Al Sabbah Chilsren’s Hospital in Juba and a refugee camp just outside the city as well as a number of other clinics and projects aimed at improving the health of children.
In the neonatal unit, Nicci has been working with a small team of nurses and doctors to improve conditions on the ward, especially with respect to cleanliness, hand hygiene, and training in basic newborn care.
These simple measures have seen a remarkable reduction in the mortality rate among babies on the ward, from about 15% to below 5% in 12 months.
Nicci shared that there is a great deal more work to be done to further improve hospital care for newborns in Juba.
In the refugee camp Nicci’s work involves more general paediatric care for refugee children from Ethiopia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.
The most commonly seen problems are malaria, gastroenteritis, and chest infections although a wide variety of issues are brought for her specialist paediatric attention.
Nicci expressed her gratitude to the congregation of St Mary’s for their continuing financial and prayer support which enables her work.
PHOTO: David Bawler. Nicci Maxwell and Meg Palmer.
What a fantastic lady who definitely needs financial and prayerful support.