Nyapieth, aged 18, was carried by villagers to the clinic on a stretcher of cloth and logs, unconscious.
She has a really severe bilateral pneumonia and kala-azar - a fatal disease carried by flies which attacks the spleen and the liver. For weeks she lay on the dirt floor of the clinic in a makeshift shelter. Her prospects of survival are bleak.
No roads lead to her village of Jiech, deep in South Sudan’s Jonglei state. Flies are everywhere, life is basic, malnutrition is rife, and kala-azar is spreading.
Where the heart is
This is not somewhere many people would choose to work, but for a Medair team and nurse Ruth Creber this is home.
This is only possible because of the dirt airstrip which lies besides the clinic. MAF flights come in and out with supplies and people for the very basic clinic. Because of this lifeline, Nyapieth has a chance to live.
Restored
Ruth gave her antibiotics, IVs, nutritional support, kala-azar treatment and makeshift physio. Gradually she re-learnt to walk.
Now, she is restored to a beautiful smiling girl ready for the challenges that face millions of South Sudanese every day.
Ruth reports, ‘A few days before I left, a huge storm was brewing, with the wind nearly knocking me over. As I left the compound for evening clinic I was met with the sound of singing and drumming, and was like “who on earth is out drumming in this weather?”…
Coming towards me, laughing, singing and beating her drum with gusto, surrounded by little kids dancing was Nyapieth: the storm not touching her. "My God is good," she sang.’
Bringing life
Without the plane, the medical team couldn’t work in Jiech. The hundreds of people queueing outside the clinic each morning would have no medical care. Without the plane, Nyapieth, and many others in her village would not be here today.
MAF partners with Medair and hundreds of other organisations to bring life to people in remote places like Nyapieth.