Home » Our work » Around the world » East Africa » South Sudan

At a glance

South Sudan is a landlocked country bordered by Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central Africa Republic and of course the Republic of Sudan to the north. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011 following a referendum held in January 2011, in which nearly 99% of voters opted for separation from the rest of Sudan.

Habitats in the country include grasslands, high-altitude plateaus, floodplains, and wetlands. Its national parks play host to large populations of species such as buffalo, elephants, giraffes, lions and chimpanzees.

Sightsavers in South Sudan

Sightsavers stared work in South Sudan in 2008 after comprehensive situation analyses in 2005 and 2007. We support eye care programmes in the Upper Nile State which is located in the northeastern part of the country with an estimated population of over a million.

According to surveys (Abusin 1983) the prevalence of blindness is 8.3-9.8% which is unacceptably high and certainly much higher than the Sub-Saharan Africa average. The main causes of blindness are cataract, trachoma and onchocerciasis (river blindness.)

Key challenges in delivering eye care, which Sightsavers will tackle over the years, will be;

• Barriers preventing the uptake of cataract surgical services as a result of inadequate human resources, lack of equipment and many others
• Barriers to the uptake of trachoma services with poor access to safe water and proper sanitation
• No specialist pediatric ophthalmic services and thus childhood blindness a very big issue
• Lack of optometry facilities, including no optical workshop.

Sightsavers’ work has already included supporting the improvement of eye care facilities, the training of eye care professionals, and the coordination of national plans for eye and general health.