Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) mission in South Sudan intervened in emergency shelter and nonfood items (ES & NFIs) by conducting series of needs assessments and distributions to reduce the suffering of the affected population in remote and hard to reach locations in South Sudan. The PAH Project coordinator for ES’ & NFIs, Lumaya Emmanuel said the emergency shelter and NFIs project was running for eight months beginning 1st of June 2017 and concluded on 31st January 2018. “The distributions were conducted to meet the needs of the most affected by conflicts and natural disasters population living in remote and hard to reach villages across South Sudan”, said Lumaya Emmanuel.
He explained that the Nonfood Items Emergency Response Team (NFIs ERT) regularly attends humanitarian cluster coordination meetings to discuss operational and strategic issues, challenges and field experiences from various planned and ongoing humanitarian interventions. “Throughout the project Polish Humanitarian Action, ES & NFIs services reached to 33,286 beneficiaries in 3,306 households of people affected by conflicts and natural disasters across parts of South Sudan, this happened due to generous financial support from the South Sudan Humanitarian fund (SSHF)”, said Lumaya.
In addition, he said “the project was aimed at providing dignity, safety and resilience, hence improved lives conditions of the most affected population”.
Lumaya further explained the policy of PAH ERT focused on conducting needs assessment; registration, verification and distributions, which are based on needs identified among affected population. The most vulnerable are always prioritized throughout an intervention. “During our assessment we always find people are dire in need of humanitarian support”. Lumaya reiterated.
Polish Humanitarian Action Emergency Response Team for shelter and nonfood items struggles to provide lifesaving assistance and dignity through distributions of kangas, treated mosquito nets, mats, blankets and sets of cooking utensils.
The distributions were held and covered inhabitants of Jalle (9,413), Lankien (15,678) and Pathai (8,194). “In the recent intervention at Kolmarek in Jalle we distributed 1,536 pcs of blanket, 1,536 pcs of treated mosquito nets, 1,536 pcs of sleeping mats, 776 pcs of kangas. At the distribution point we considered all individual differences, as it is one of the main PAH’s commitments, separated queues were set for different categories of beneficiaries namely; men, boys, girls, women, differentiating elders, pregnant women, disabled as most vulnerable groups”, Lumaya Emmanuel said.
All the distributions were held in consultation with the beneficiaries, Local leaders, and Relief Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) office or Relief Organization of South Sudan (ROSS) secretaries. “The information on beneficiaries normally goes through their local chiefs and community mobilizers in collaboration with other humanitarian partners and Payam administrators. This is done to ensure information is well disseminated to all affected populations which aims to improve our coordination, operations and remain accountable to the people in need”, Lumaya said.
According to the project coordination, PAH recruits and trains local personnel to support project activities as casual workers. The team engages with local authorities, local community and partners on ground, provides materials used for the distributions and debriefs the stakeholders during exit from the location. “Local authorities helped in maintaining discipline amongst the beneficiaries during the distribution, casual workers hired, such as enumerators, played a great role in registering all the beneficiaries who possessed token during distribution, crowd controllers helped in maintaining order and ensured that security and discipline are maintained at the distribution point’’, said Lumaya.
In addition, Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) mission in South Sudan ES & NFIs ERT recently conducted needs assessments in Magwi and Ibba counties where the next possible intervention of shelters and NFIs will be conducted. The assessments launched is targeting the returnees who have just come from various camps.
According to estimated households provided by an official from Relief and Rehabilitation Commissions’ (RRC) offices, PAH mission in South Sudan would target households of 8,38 at Lobone Payam in Magwi county, and 5,42 households at Taramuko and Muzenge both are in Ibba county with ES & NFIs. Meanwhile, Lumaya said the numbers of persons to be reached would be determined during registration and verification exercises.
Polish Humanitarian Action mission in South Sudan has so far assisted 169,518 individuals with emergency shelters (ES) and nonfood items (NFIs) across South Sudan from 2017 to 2018, with assistance funded by South Sudan Humanitarian Funds (SSHF).