“A Letter from the Ambassador of Japan to South Sudan”

In March this year, a film entitled, “The Lion Standing against the Wind ,” was released in Japan. This is based on a story of a Japanese doctor and a nurse dispatched to a Red Cross surgical hospital in Northern Kenya, treating wounded child soldiers who fled from South Sudan.  The Red Cross’ role to link the Japanese and the South Sudanese people, however, is not only fictional.

In South Sudan, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the South Sudan Red Cross Society play an important role in giving assistance to victims of the ongoing conflict as well as containing the humanitarian consequences on civilians.  Japan supports ICRC activities and is interacting with the organization in various ways.  Last week, I was so fortunate as to observe their activities in Juba first hand, accompanied by Mr. Rauchenstein, the Head of Delegation at ICRC South Sudan, and Ms. Sato, Field Delegate in Lakes State.

ICRC established the Juba Rehabilitation Centre, the home of its physical rehabilitation project, in 2006 and transferred its custody to the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare in 2009.  The Centre carries a tremendous value as it stands today as the only organization and workshop in South Sudan to manufacture prosthesis and to provide/repair wheelchairs.  All the employees at the facility were highly motivated, and the outpatients that I spoke to were all very thankful for the service.  One of the staff was handicapped herself; she was so committed to serve her community not only through cooking food for the users but also through giving embroidery training to the handicapped to make them self-reliant.  She looked so empowered when she told me about her great ambition of expanding her activities for the users.

Workshop for prosthesis

Gift from the facility’s cook who teaches embroidery

On the Juba Protection of Civilians (PoC) site, ICRC and the South Sudan Red Cross Society jointly undertake activities to re-establish the links between family members separated by the conflict.  Together with the South Sudan Red Cross, ICRC registers those who have lost contacts with their family members and compile their face pictures and ID numbers into a “snapshot” book, which then will be copied to all PoC sites and refugee camps for the South Sudanese people for their reference, across countries in the region (Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya).  I happened to be present at the Family Links booth when a resident in Juba had just received a message and a telephone number of her sister in Gambella, Ethiopia, thanks to this service.  ICRC employees explained to me that the same technical support for Restoring Family Links was provided to the Japanese Red Cross Society in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquakes in 2011 when numerous families fell apart.  Listening to testimonials of joyful families which now are reunited and reflecting back upon the grave disaster’s damages to families in Japan barely 4 years ago made me feel that the issue of family reunion is not somebody else’s business.

Browsing the Snapshot book, a missing family registry

Browsing the Snapshot book, a missing family registry

This March, the Government of Japan contributed USD 4.25 million to ICRC activities as part of its humanitarian assistance to South Sudan. This fund not only assisted the Juba Rehabilitation Centre and the Family Links project above but also a wider range of activities, including medical operations, water and food supply near the frontlines of battlefields for the benefit of communities affected by war.  In addition, three Japanese nationals currently work for ICRC in South Sudan; an ICRC employee, Ms. Sato, in charge of Lakes State and a doctor and a nurse dispatched from the Japan Red Cross hospitals as part of a Red Cross mobile surgical team.

Ms. Sato, ICRC Field Delegate in Lakes

Japan Red Cross medical doctor on surgical team

Ms. Sato says that the number of Japanese staff at ICRC tripled from 9 to 27 worldwide in the last three years.  I hope that people in Japan raise their curiosity and actively involve themselves in countries like South Sudan confronting hardships.  Such personal contributions, I believe, would be highly appreciated in the entire world.