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CANADA
In the late 1990s Canada started accepting Sudanese refugees from Cuba. Jacob was flown to Toronto, but discovered he couldn’t practice medicine in Canada. Humbled, he travelled to Windsor, Ontario to take a job as a machine operator.
In early 2005 the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the northern and southern armies of Sudan. Looking to return home, Jacob’s friend Daniel (another Cuban-trained doctor) contacted Samaritan’s Purse for help. “We didn’t go to Canada looking for a better life,” says Jacob. Intrigued, Samaritan’s Purse located 14 other doctors (including Jacob) who were still intent on fulfilling their Garang-given mission.
“We didn’t go to Canada looking for a better life,” says Jacob.
AFRICA
In January 2006 Samaritan’s Purse partnered with the University of Calgary’s medical school to proffer nine months of refresher and training courses to the out-of-practice doctors.
Today the NGO is financing Africa-based medical internships, the final bend of a 22-year journey home.
Back in Kijabe, Jacob praises his hospital instruction:
“Well-organized, well equipped—we have a lot of cases for training,” he says. Jacob and four others are currently rotating at AIC Kijabe and Kapsowar hospitals in Kenya. Jacob and four others are currently rotating at AIC Kijabe and Kapsowar hospitals in Kenya.
Under the tutelage of Africa Inland Mission ex-pats, he routinely deals with cases of malaria, TB and AIDS, the same sicknesses he will face in Sudan.
But seven months into field work, there is still a ways to go.
Jacob poses with Dr. Thor Swanson,
a "great friend" and mentor at
Kijabe hospital. “They [the Sudanese doctors] are definitely confident, but they’re not always competent,” says Dr. Paul Larson who oversees the curriculum at Kapsowar. “They really just need experience and some knowledge to build on.”
Dr. Dan Poenaru, a surgeon and former instructor at Queens University, oversees training at Kijabe. He says AIM is doing more than training doctors.
“AIM is about discipling and maturing churches,” he says. Poenaru says AIM’s ultimate goal is to see these doctors build the Sudanese church. At Kijabe Jacob is encouraged to lead devotionals, preach in local churches, and to pray with patients.
“People don’t just need medicine,” says Jacob. “They need healing from Jesus Christ.”
HOME
Scott Shannon, a Nairobi-based doctor, organized the Africa-based internships on behalf of Samaritan’s Purse. In an email, he explains what 15 more doctors will mean to southern Sudan:
Southern Sudan has fewer than 50 doctors serving over nine million people. “The needs are great; the health indicators are some of the worst in the world and the doctor-patient ratio is absurd. It is unclear how many Southern Sudanese doctors are working in southern Sudan, but at one point it was estimated as less than 50.”
That’s less than 50 doctors serving between nine and ten million Sudanese.
Asked how he will cope— why he has chosen to live and work in such a dangerous country, Jacob chuckles into the receiver.
“The joy will be seeing the results of our work,” he says. “We know life is difficult, but we are committed…these are our people; if they live and suffer there, we can stay there too.”
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