National UNV Justine Mwangwi and Agnes Momone, a first year midwifery student from Juba Health Sciences Institute. HSI students do their practical exercises at the Hospital and often mentored by UNFPA.

THE POWER OF SHARED LEARNING

Bruno Feder

Photographer based in Lisbon

Text by Sam Mednick

“I want to be a leader in my field,” says Repent Khamis. Sitting at his desk in the Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery (JCONAM), the 40-year-old South Sudanese nursing and midwifery tutor says he wants to influence people so they can realize their potential. Khamis is one of 17 South Sudanese mentees taking part in the peer-to-peer mentoring programme initiated by the Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) with the South Sudan Nurses and Midwives Association (SSNAMA). “The design of the project is to ensure that there is a two-way communication between participants from the two countries,” says Kelly Chisholm, a registered midwife based in Nova Scotia. “This way, shared learning can take place as both our countries have midwifery that is still growing.” The initiative provides South Sudanese trainers like Khamis with the opportunity to gain a different perspective on midwifery while improving their skills. After studying nursing in Kenya, Khamis returned to Juba to work as a nurse tutor. He said it wasn’t until visiting a rural town that he decided to upgrade his credentials and become a midwife.

“We were giving vaccinations to children in that village,” says Khamis. “One of the women we met by chance was experiencing a prolonged labor and really needed to get to the hospital, but she had no means of transportation.” Khamis and his team gave the woman a lift in their car and arrived at the health clinic just in time. “That moment had an effect on me,” he says. The woman could have died had it not been for their chance encounter. Khamis realized the dire need in the country for more health personnel, emergency transportation and awareness about safe deliveries, especially in rural areas.

Professor Repent Khamis teaching midwifery and nursing first year students during an anatomy and physiology class at Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery (JCONAM). Juba South Sudan.

The peer-to-peer mentoring consists of a monthly virtual meeting, constant E-mail exchanges, and other opportunities to support learning. Although Chisholm says she can’t begin to claim that she understands the context in which Khamis is working, she says the program’s benefits go both ways. “We get to learn from their experience and there’s mutual sharing,” she says. Having been a midwife for 16 years, Chisholm has traveled and worked around the world, yet she was shocked when she came to South Sudan in November 2016. “The level of poverty and uncertainty in Juba was dramatically escalated,” she recalls.

What inspired her most were the South Sudanese midwives. “They were in an insecure environment and yet they continued to work, telling us that it is about their women and their country’s future.” The partnership between CAM and SSNAMA had just begun and is definitely going the right direction. In May 2017, South Sudanese peer, Justine Mangwi Juma Olimpio, was invited to a Parliamentary Reception in Ottawa, Canada in celebration of the project. The visit allowed many of the Canadian peers a chance to meet Juma in person and get to know each other. It also provided Juma with an opportunity to visit all levels of birth setting in Canada, from home to birth centre to tertiary hospitals. Canadian peer Emmanuelle Dennie-Filion says, “I think it makes a huge difference when you have the person in front of you. Now my motivation to be connected and participate in the program is even greater. I am super happy to have this opportunity. I think it’s just the beginning.”

Nurse Clara Alfred with a newborn at the Juba Teaching Hospital nursery room. Juba South Sudan