As the sun sets over the Sobat River just outside the reed fencing at Mareng Mobile Clinic, a woman enters the gates carrying a small boy in her arms. Thon Maker takes a bite of the dinner he had just plated and sets it down.
He walks to the woman and escorts her over to a blue plastic table where he conducts consultations. He wastes no time taking the child’s temperature. It is 102.7. He runs a malaria test. It’s positive. He gives the child acetaminophen for his fever and brings the boy and his mother to a tent to receive the first dose of an antimalarial drug.
It’s obvious Thon has done this before. And because of your support, he will continue.
“Ever since Corus started working here, everything has been good,” Thon Maker, clinical officer at the Mareng Mobile Clinic. "
Thon Maker helps a young child with malaria in the remote community of Mareng, South Sudan.
Displaced and forgotten, yet driven to help
Thon, 28, is the clinical officer at the Mareng Mobile Clinic in Pigi County, South Sudan. Born in the nearby hub of Malakal during the second Sudanese civil war, his family fled when fighting erupted near their home when he was a mere toddler.
Life was difficult, but the worst was yet to come. When Thon was five, his father passed away from an unknown sickness. His family didn’t have the means to take him to the hospital.
Life for widows in South Sudan is extremely challenging, especially for those who are displaced and separated from the support of the widow’s family. Often these women are abandoned by the husband’s family, left to fend for themselves and their children on their own. They have no rights to land and are never allowed to remarry. They are forgotten people.
Despite his tumultuous childhood, Thon was able to begin his studies, ultimately receiving his diploma from University at the Juba Institute of Health Sciences.
His immediate next step? Move back home. “To help my people,” he says proudly.
Caption: Thon helps patients at the mobile clinic, made possible by you.
Bringing health care to the most remote communities
“It is the first time for this area to have a clinic like this,” Thon says. “Since day one up to now. That’s why they are so happy. Because it is the first time for them to see something like this.”
Several years later, your support provided Thon, and 33 other health care staff, with additional training. The first tented clinic opened in Mareng last year. Since then, Thon and his team have reached nearly 40,000 patients.
Thon is particularly well versed with treating malaria, which is the most common disease at Mareng Clinic—and in South Sudan overall. The country has one of the highest rates of malaria in the region, with an estimated 7,630 cases and 18 deaths per day in 2022.
Thon recalls when a 23-year-old patient came into the clinic, unconscious.
“It was severe malaria and was hard for us to handle,” he says.
He tried everything. He gave her an antimalarial drug, and then another. Finally, the patient awoke. Her life saved.
“We are providing service to the community,” Thon says. “They appreciate us. We work hand in hand. They support us. We support them.”
Thank you for equipping health care heroes like Thon. Your generosity is saving lives, even in the most remote communities.