South Sudan's first female OBGYN shattered stereotypes to pave way for women in medicine
Dr. Idyoro Ojukwu made history in South Sudan as the first woman Obstetrician and Gynaecologist (OBGYN) when she graduated from the University of Nairobi in 2013 after being awarded a scholarship to study at the East African university.
Ojukwu had anticipated at the time that more women from South Sudan would have pursued this path before her because it had been decades since the establishment of a tertiary institution in South Sudan.
“The first group of South Sudanese women admitted to study medicine at the university were three ladies who joined a year ahead of us. This was in a class of about 70 to 80 students. Most of the female medical students were Arabs from North Sudan. It was extraordinary to be a South Sudanese woman studying medicine at the time,” She told the Nation Africa.
“I actually felt bad, but I have come to learn that it was because South Sudanese women have been marginalised for long. Yes, I'm proud and happy that I am the first one, but I don’t believe that should be the case…"I was born and raised in Juba, South Sudan in the 1980s. I was in primary school when the war started. There was a lot of shelling as rebels were targeting military camps. At some point, we had to build trenches in our home so that when the shelling began, we could all hide inside the trenches to protect ourselves,’’ she added.
Motivated to give back to her community, Dr Idyoro Ojukwu in 2006, while serving as the director of the South Sudan HIV/AIDS Commission in Torit, played a pivotal role in establishing the first Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) centre in the region. Subsequently, in 2008, she worked as a medical officer at Juba Teaching Hospital. In 2009, she embarked on her residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Nairobi, completing it in 2013, Women Lift Health reports.
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According to the Jica 2017 Gender Equality Report, the impact of the war in South Sudan has had profound social, economic, physical, and psychological consequences on women.
The shortage of midwives was a significant challenge in South Sudan before independence in 2011. However, organizations such as IMC and other partners have played a crucial role in addressing this issue by supporting midwifery education in the country, as reported by Frontier.
