South Sudan’s New Graduate Nurses and Midwives Are Urged to Demonstrate Humility in Daily Duties

In South Sudan, newly graduated nurses and midwives have been urged to demonstrate humility in their daily work as caregivers.

Bishop Matthew Remijio, the Local Ordinary of Wau Diocese, addressed graduating nurses and midwives of the Catholic Health Training Institute (CHTI) on July 1. The health institution is under the auspices of the Wau Diocese.

“Show them (patients) humility in everything you say and do; let everything you do be accompanied by humility,” Bishop Remijio urged, adding, “Humility is in short supply in our culture and sometimes even within the Church.”

Additionally, the South Sudanese Bishop stated, “If you walk into society looking for work without humility, you will not rescue anyone; you will not save lives, which means that everything you have learnt is thrown away.”

In a ceremony attended by religious leaders, lawmakers, and community leaders from Western Bhar el Ghazal state, the Wau-based Catholic health institute graduated 41 health employees, including 16 midwives and 25 nurses.

In his address to the new health personnel, the Local Ordinary of South Sudan’s Wau Diocese, who also serves as the Apostolic Administrator of Rumbek Diocese, identified a deficiency in the country’s ten-year-old country’s value of humanity, stating that people “in various communities do not care about one another due to a lack of humanity.”

“We are in a newly born country, and knowledge is scarce, but we prioritise an attitude of pride over other factors that will hinder our ability to serve our society better,” Bishop Remijio said of South Sudan, the world’s newest nation.

As recent graduates in the field of health, the Comboni Missionaries member stated, “What people want of you is to make a difference, which I am sure you are prepared to achieve.”

He continued by advising the newly trained health staff to “forego pride and adhere to the ethics” they learnt during their training at the Catholic institution.

Bishop Remijio addressed graduating midwives and nurses, “A health professional is like a gate that welcomes all people without discrimination.”

CHTI is one of the initiatives of the Catholic Church-based humanitarian alliance Solidarity with South Sudan (SSS), which is “an initiative of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and the Union of Superiors General (USG)… born in response to a request from the Catholic Bishops of Sudan (and South Sudan)” under the auspices of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SCBC).

According to SSS, the Wau-based CHTI “trains young South Sudanese men and women to be nurses and midwives.” They will return to their communities and, through their compassion and care for the sick, contribute to the development of a more just and peaceful society.”