Health and Nutrition Support to Vulnerable Affected Communities in Panyijiar County Panyijar is among the conflict-affected and hard-to-reach counties in South Sudan which continues to be underserved with increasing vulnerable populations due to flooding and continued insecurity. This project will provide integrated lifesaving essential health and nutrition services in Panyijiar. Health and nutrition services will be provided in the Nyal and Ganyliel Payams targeting 32,405 direct beneficiaries (4637 Men, 7005 women, 9667 Boys and 11096 Girls), inclusive of  3,242 (464 Men, 701 Women, 967 Boys and 1110 Girls) Persons living with Disability (PLWD’s). The project aims at improving access and utilization of integrated primary healthcare services, including reproductive health and immunization coverage by supporting two Primary Health Care Units (PHCU)’s: Nyandong PHCU, and Meer Island PHCU in Nyal. 
IRC is the current Health Pooled Fund (HPF) partner in Panyijar County (under Lot 21) supporting Primary healthcare services in 11 facilities (1 PHCC in Ganyiel and 10 PHCU’s). Through a network of 80 Boma Health Workers (BHW’s), the IRC provides community treatment for common childhood illnesses through the Boma Health Initiative strategy. At the beginning of HPF3 Year 4 in April 2022, four health facilities (Nyandong, Chuk, Janglou and Meer PHCUs) were closed due to funding cuts, leading to a reduction from 15 to 11 supported health facilities. To help address the needs of the affected vulnerable populations, the IRC received funding from Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) to support Chuk PHCU in July 2022.
Each of the proposed PHCUs (Nyandong and Mer Island) will operate with 4 qualified health staff and 2 support staff. A clinical officer and a nurse who will provide outpatient consultations to persons above 5 years and children under the age of 5 years and offer a clinical package of management of rape (CMR). An EPI vaccinator to provide immunization services to children under 1 year, and  a dispenser will provide essential medicines as per prescription. The project seeks to improve Nyadong PHCU to provide Basic Emergency Obstetrics and Neonatal Care (BEmONC) services to pregnant women and girls and conduct skilled deliveries to women in active labour. To support disease surveillance, the IRC will train 30(22M8F) staff on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) to ensure surveillance and response systems for priority diseases, especially cholera is prioritized in the county. The project will also support minor rehabilitation of the 2 PHCU’s and latrine construction at Ganyiel PHCC.
To prevent high malnutrition rates IRC through this action will provide preventive, promotional and curative integrated nutrition interventions .This intervention will support existing nutrition interventions in 18 static nutrition sites and 2 rapid response mobile (RRM) clinics in 6 sites  in the County, to increase access of services for hard-to-reach populations. The program targets children U5s and Pregnant lactating women (PLW) at risk of malnutrition or on treatment for malnutrition. The interventions will include treatment and care for both severe and moderate acute Malnutrition. Outreach activities, community mobilization, Maternal infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN) individual and group counseling . IRC will train community structures and service providers on Community Management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) and nutrition sensitive packages to strengthen capacities for treatment and  prevention of malnutrition. IRC will provide malaria testing for children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), demonstration of kitchen gardens to support groups and capacity building on GBV and child protection to staff to ensure a multi sector approach for tackling malnutrition. The IRC will collaborate with the county health department (CHD) and other existing partners and engage in capacity sharing with the community, staff and partners. IRC will reach 8847 U5,3022 Women and 280 men through nutrition intervention