Sr. Paola Moggi, CMS
Today Wau is the second town of the Republic of South Sudan, with an estimated population of around 500,000 habitants.
Saint Daniel Comboni Catholic Hospital was opened in 2010, after one year of demanding renovation work, since it had been confiscated by the government in 1958, at the eve of the expulsion of all the missionaries.
Managed by the Comboni Missionary Sisters, the hospital provides vital health services to the population of the town and of its surroundings, the latter mainly constituted by very traditional pastoralist groups, who reach the hospital after all other traditional remedies have failed.
An ever better service
Saint Daniel Comboni Catholic Hospital provides preventive and curative care, with special attention to pregnant women and babies. It also provides health education, immunization, antenatal clinic and counselling services, especially for HIV patients.
Beside the Out Patient Department, with Laboratory, X-ray and Ultrasound, the hospital has 122 beds and an operating theatre supported by a very precious Blood Bank. It has also a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for preterm children.
Full-time missionaries in the hospital
The Comboni Missionary Sisters are really committed to be a life-saving presence for thousands of women and children in Wau. At present, five of them are working full-time in the hospital: Sr. María Teresa Carrasco Aguirre and Sr. Winifred Obbo are Administrators, Sr. Maria Martinelli and Marianna Santin are Medical Doctors, Sr. Macklean Karugaba is the Matron and Sr. Agnes Katulo is in charge of the Paediatric Ward. Three Sisters of Charity are also working there, in the Pharmacy and in the Out Patient Department.
Insecurity in the area
Despite the widespread insecurity endured by South Sudan since 2013, Saint Daniel Comboni Catholic Hospital has been growing steadily over the years. In 2014 the Blood Bank was set up; in 2022 there were 110 beds, with around 6.000 people admitted, and in 2024 the beds were 122 with more than 10.000 admissions. New services are offered and more people are cured, mainly pregnant women, often too young to deliver: for many of them the hospital is a life-saving presence. On average, every month 400 women enter the Maternity Ward.
An Italian medical doctor who last March spent 2 weeks in Wau Catholic Hospital as volunteer of the Association Needle was deeply impressed by its service: «In a context marked by poverty, insecurity and lack of adequate infrastructures, this hospital is the only one which provides competent and accessible medical treatment to the population».
Saving lives is the priority
In February 2025 St. Daniel Comboni Hospital offered also free surgical treatment to 75 women suffering of genital fistula, an invalidating complication of childbirth. Women with difficult pregnancies, if accompanied through antenatal clinic and assisted to deliver in hospital, generally do not suffer from fistula.
St. Daniel Comboni Hospital has saved the lives of many babies and mothers, and their gratitude is expressed by countless girls named after the sisters who have cured them.