Blogs
December 5, 2025 • 2 min read
In Renk County, healthcare does not arrive by chance, it arrives on foot, on motorbikes, through muddy roads, and in the determined footsteps of young clinicians who choose courage over comfort. This story follows Luke, Otto, Joseph, and Buay, four GOAL health workers whose everyday acts of compassion uphold entire communities. Behind every statistic in Renk lies a human heartbeat, and behind every lifesaving intervention stands a hero who simply refuses to give up.
By Jalisi Luckmore, Resilience & Learning Technical Lead, GOAL South Sudan
It is a cool Saturday morning in Renk County. Before sunrise, I slide into our dusty Land Cruiser, ready to trace the pulse of GOAL’s healthcare work. Every facility hums with urgency, yet everywhere I go, young clinicians stand steady in the storm. Their names appear in reports. Their courage often gets lost behind statistics, cases seen, lives saved, and lives lost. But beyond the numbers is the human spirit that transforms overwhelm into impact, one patient at a time.
Meet Luke and his colleagues!
At the first stop, we meet Luke, a clinical officer whose life was saved at birth by a doctor in Kajo Keji. Named after that doctor, he grew into someone who could not ignore suffering. Now serving with GOAL at Gongbar, he begins each day long before the village wakes. By mid-morning, his clinic overflows with mothers, elders, and children who walked for hours to reach him. “When you see numbers like this, you step forward,” Luke says.
In Omudulu, only one nurse is present, Otto Sunday Titus. His quiet determination carries him through days when he moves tirelessly between patients. Otto still remembers walking eight hours from the main road to reach his posting, mattress balanced on his head, lost twice along the way. The community welcomed him with singing and dancing, gratitude becoming his anchor.
His defining moment came during a complicated nighttime birth. With minimal equipment and only the glow of a torch, he worked steadily to stop the mother’s bleeding. Minutes felt endless until a newborn cried into the rain-soaked night. Mother and child survived. Otto says that sound still gives him strength.
The Power of Persistence
Challenges in Renk are relentless. One clinician might see more than 100 patients a day. When rain comes, roads vanish into mud, cutting communities off completely. Supplies must be positioned ahead of the season, and even the storage huts aren’t always safe. Luke once had to rescue medicines from a leaking roof, sprinting through the storm to keep them dry.
For Joseph Kur, a nutrition officer, service has meant trekking nine hours on foot through thick mud when vehicles could no longer pass. Exhausted and drenched, he arrived in a remote settlement where malnourished children were waiting. He unpacked his supplies and got to work.
Another nutrition officer, Buay, sums it up: “Serve with compassion. Leave the community better than you found it.”
Thanks to GOAL’s support, stronger structures, improved supplies, and better training, healthcare continues to reach even the most remote corners. And as I drive away at sunset, I carry proof that behind every statistic stands a guardian of health. Behind every “project outcome” is a heartbeat that refused to quit. The real story is not the road I travelled but the heroes I was privileged to find along the way.
