SC Alliance Kickoff Ceremony

This morning we had a kickoff party at the compound to celebrate the merging of operations between Save the Children US, UK, and Sweden.  The three organizations have operations in 8 of the 10 districts in Southern Sudan with not too much program overlap.  Beginning today, they will operate from the same compound and pool resources and programs to improve cost efficiency and improve communication.

There were a few government officials as well as the country directors for different NGO's and UN agency's in attendance.  From right to left: Country Director for Save the Children Sweden, Representative for the Minister of Gender, Social Welfare, and Religion, and the Minister of War Heroes.

The staff and invited guests listen to speeches and discussion of program areas:

Together, the new partnership, called Save the Children in Southern Sudan, will have 429 staff and operate programs in education, early childhood development, health, water and sanitation, child protection, and thedemobilization and reintegration of child soldiers.  

Mattito Watson, Country Director for SC US gives a speech before cutting the ribbon:

After the ribbon is cut.  From right to left: Country Director UNICEF Sudan, Mattito Watson Country Director SC US, Country Director SC Sweden, representative for the GOSS Minister of Gender, Social Welfare, and Religion:

Cake!

I will try to get some photos of Juba up but I will link them off of my Flickr page to avoid uploading twice.  The satellite internet is pretty sketchy and photos take about 20 minutes to upload.  I'll upload them at night so as not to eat up all of the limited bandwidth.