BORN FROM THE NEED FOR CHANGE
We Turn Challenges
into Possibilities
Our Story
In 2011, my family and I made the decision to return to Aweil, South Sudan after spending over 25 years as refugees in Sudan. The instability and ongoing conflict had kept us away from home for so long. At the time, Maper was a young, yet rapidly growing community, made of mostly returnees like us. Each year, after the rainy season, we witnessed a troubling rise in malaria cases. It seemed as though every family had lost at least one loved one to the disease. The toll it took on our community was heartbreaking. That’s when I knew something had to be done.
Located in the heart of Aweil town, our clinic started small. We had only very basic equipment but a clear mission: to offer continuous and accessible primary care to those who needed it most. Slowly, we expanded. We added a laboratory and pharmacy to complement and integrate our medical services. The journey has never been easy. There were many moments of doubt and many challenges along the way but we kept going, driven by the needs of our community.
Today, our medical center stands on a foundation of trust within our community. We serve everyone, regardless of background or economic situation. We are committed to providing medical care that is both safe and skilled. Here, people don’t just come for treatment. They come to be heard, to be supported and be seen.
Luak Koc Team
Our clinic is supported by a medical doctor, two clinical officers, a midwife, a lab technician, a pharmacist, a health promoter, and a public health awareness specialist.
Our team is small but we put our heart in everything we do and have a deep sense of responsibility. We honor the stories of our patients and advocate for the needs of those we care for. While we might not have it all, we give our best every day. Together, we make sure no one is left behind.
Resources may be limited, but our belief remains strong: every patient deserves compassion, support, and someone who will fight for their well-being.
The Primary Care Clinic
The clinic is open 24/7 and serves many important roles. It’s where we first meet our patients and begin building a foundation of trust and safety. This connection allows us to form a true partnership in care.
Here, we introduce health education and help patients understand why follow-up is essential.
The clinic is also a space for ongoing staff training, ensuring we continue to grow and improve.
Most importantly, it’s a welcoming place for the community—a space to connect, ask questions, and feel supported.
The Pharmacy
Like many small pharmacies in resource-limited settings, we provide a modest but vital selection of essential medications. This includes antibiotics, antimalarial drugs, over-the-counter pain relievers, and basic personal hygiene products. One of our biggest struggles is in-country logistics and limited supply options. Many essential and branded medications are simply hard to find. We also lack refrigeration equipment. As a result, we cannot store temperature-sensitive medicines, which limits what we can offer — especially vaccines and certain pediatric drugs.
In addition to dispensing medications, the pharmacy plays an important role in the health education. Often, we are the first point of contact for people seeking medical treatment, and we strive to guide them to the right care.
The Laboratory
In our laboratory, we use rapid diagnostic tests whenever they’re available locally. However, this isn’t always possible. More often, we rely on traditional blood testing methods. This includes manual techniques under the microscope and basic chemical reactions. These older methods are labor-intensive and prone to error, as they depend heavily on the skill of our lab technician.
While this is far from ideal, it’s the best we’ve been able to implement in recent years, given the local challenges we face. Procuring modern lab equipment is complicated by logistic hurdles and high costs. Additionally, an unreliable power supply often disrupts our operations. Despite these obstacles, we do our best to provide the most accurate results we can, given the circumstances.
