In early February, Jembi began implementing BSIS in the newest country in the world, South Sudan!
Linda Taylor and Rhonwyn Cornell landed in the capital Juba and spent a week working with the South Sudanese Red Cross and the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) preparing the local team for the upcoming implementation activities. The aim of the trip was to build the relationships, knowledge and skills with local partners to ensure proper country ownership of BSIS to support the long term sustainability of the implementation. As part of the visit activities that the team ran training on system validation, basic project management and training skills.
During the visit, the team had the honour of being introduced to the Minister of Health and the Director General of Policy, Planning, Research and Monitoring and Evaluation, who visited the NBTS centre during our visit. They were very interested in exploring potential integration of BSIS with their DHIS2 reporting system enabling MoH staff, including the Minister, to access a dashboard in DHIS2 showing things like blood availability - the lack of which is a significant problem in this part of the world. The team also met with the Country Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the WHO’s blood safety expert working with the NBTS.
All in all the trip was a great success. The Jembi team really enjoyed working with the local teams, who were incredibly warm, welcoming and enthusiastic. We look forward to working with them further as the BSIS implementation in Juda continues.