Darfur is Where Her Story Begins…Twice.

Nawader’s smile represents a long journey from Darfur to Khartoum and back again. In fact Darfur is the where the story begins…twice.

Nawader comes from Zalingei, the capital of Sudan’s Central Darfur region. In 2019, an EMERGENCY team diagnosed her with rheumatic heart disease on a cardiac screening mission.

As a result, she was referred by the Regional Programme, which arranged her journey to the Salam Centre for specialist surgery. Like all our patients, her travel, accommodation, surgery, recovery, medication, and everything needed was covered by EMERGENCY, putting our mission of providing free, high-quality healthcare into action for over the 11 millionth time.

Nawader’s arrived at the Salam Centre in October 2019. The surgery was a success, but the combination of a delicate post-operative recovery and the global outbreak of COVID-19 meant that she spent an entire year at the hospital. For many, this would be the beginning of a difficult challenge, but for Nawader, this is where her story becomes one of empowerment as much as of medical treatment. Nawader was one of our patients, and then she became our colleague.

She attended training from the Salam’s Logistics team, turning her recovery time into a learning opportunity as she shadowed the team on day-to-day activities. When she returned to Darfur, she applied for a position at our Paediatric Clinic in Nyala where she became the new Cleaner Supervisor.

From the very beginning her contribution made a difference, but her determination did not stop there. While we are sad to see her go, we are delighted to say that a few days ago, she left us to start her University course in Economics to build a career and better life for herself. This won’t be goodbye, as we continue to keep in touch for her periodical cardiac screenings, and we’re glad to have played a part in her personal achievements. It began simply with her right to access free, quality healthcare, while the next chapter begins with the right to hope for the future she wants.

Nawader will always hold a special place in EMERGENCY’s heart.
Here she is smiling on her first day working with us: the second beginning of her EMERGENCY journey

The activities at EMERGENCY’s Paediatric Centre in Nyala are supported by Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo – Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS)