I finally arrived at Aweil with another nutrition nurse from Australia on today.  Aweil is a town on the plain. Looking out from the plane, I could see a boundary-less plain with all small huts all around. The Aweil City Hospital is just opposite to the Airport. The compound is around a kilometre away through the market. We need to take the MSF vehicle to across. The compound has 7 to 8 tents for accommodation of twenty staffs. It's my first time in all of my missions that I needed to stay in a tent. I have to stay with another seven staff people. During the day, it's hot. You can't stay inside for more than five minutes. But during the night, I need to put on a blanket. The Aweil project is a new project. The main programme is a nutrition programme. It consists of setting a Therapeutic Feeding Centre at the hospital and two ambulatory Nutrition Therapeutic Centre in the distant IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps, which are around 100 kilometres away. The target is treating 5,000 severely malnourished kids. They have registered over 500 in two months already. I had a chance to listen to the briefing that the present nutrition nurse gave the new one. I found it very good and systematic--in the selecting and discharge criteria of the malnourished children, monitoring mechanisms, and treatment protocols, including the vaccination. Surgeons are doing individual cases but nutrition support may help large group of kids in danger of growth and body defects, which may subsequently lead to lots of disease in the kids. MSF is really doing very good on this issue. I'm glad to know more about this. The second main programme is helping the Ministry of Health (government ) obstetric service. We have a gynaecologist in our team. Since the outgoing gynaecologist  has finished his mission and gone last Friday, but the next one will come on coming Friday, so I have to take up the duty as well. There are quite a lot of deliveries here, at least 3 or 4 per day. There is also surgical service in the hospital which is just a temporary one. To continue this service or not, it still depends on our recommendations. There are roughly 30 surgical patients, around ten of them are taken care by MSF as we are only treating the emergency cases. Other staff members in the compound are always busy. They need to set up the new programme, the new Therapeutic Feeding Centre, a new office. There are a lot of movement and security issues etc. Doctor duties are mainly in the hospital during the day. After returning to the compound after the day, we are always free, idling around, chatting or reading but they are busy working late in the night. Au Yiu Kai
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