Sienna Miller in South Sudan

Sienna Miller, our Global Ambassador since 2009, just returned from South Sudan — her sixth trip to our programs in the field.

During this most recent visit, Sienna first visited the Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery, where she met with Grace, a midwife master trainer who helps run our training programs.

Students come to the midwifery school from around the country to be trained in lifesaving skills that will enable them to return to their home communities to support mothers and ensure delivery of healthy babies for years to come.

Sienna met our students and was able to talk with them about their experiences. Some of the students described visiting their home communities during their school breaks and delivering healthy babies using the skills they’d already gained from the classes.

Sienna also visited Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites, where she met South Sudanese families forced out of their homes by violence. She saw our work with children suffering from malnutrition, met mothers who had just given birth and were recovering, and watched a surgery on one of the PoC residents.

Finally, Sienna traveled north to Malakal, which sits on the border with Sudan and where rampant violence has led to some 30,000 people living in a large PoC camp. There, she met women who are regaining their lives and livelihoods — including such skills as sewing and jewelry making — after experiencing gender-based violence and losing loved ones. One woman she met had lost all four of her children during the violence, but is now a lead community mobilizer, helping others to access care.

Sienna also traveled into Malakal town, which was completely abandoned during the worst of the violence, but is now coming back to life. She saw the main hospital, which bears the scars of violence: bullet holes in the walls, bloodstains covering some of the floors, equipment ripped from the walls. She learned that one of our doctors, who now lives in the PoC with his family and works for us during the day in the PoC clinic, got his medical training at that hospital.

In other words, Sienna saw first-hand how years of conflict, disease and malnutrition can devastate communities. But she also found inspiration in the work of our staff and the resilience of the people they help every day. This is why she’s been a vocal advocate on behalf of International Medical Corps for a decade.

Supporters like Sienna — like you — help make it possible for us to ease suffering and save lives.

You can make a difference.

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