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Their newborn daughter maybe only a few days old but that has failed to deter an Algies Bay couple from heading to one of the toughest places in the world for children.
Doctors Jono and Destinee Macleod are due to return to South Sudan on June 10 – one of the most under developed countries in the world.
They will take with them their children Zoe, 5, Ellisha, 3, and Shiloh, who is less than a month old.
Famine was declared in South Sudan in February and more than one million children are threatened with starvation.
The Macleods will be based in remote Tonj – a town comprising mud huts and a handful of stores.
Road access via dirt tracks is near impossible during the wet season and plagued by bandits and rogue militias when it is dry.
Solar panels provide the sole source of power.
But the Macleods have no qualms in swapping a comfortable existence in Mahurangi to serve a people they have grown to love.
“There’s financial rewards in life, and there are other rewards. We get to see really cool miracles, and so many kids have their lives saved – that for us is worth more than the salaries we could be earning as doctors here,” Jono says.
Destinee agrees: “We think we would be discontented living in New Zealand. We wouldn’t be using our full potential,” she says.
The couple will work at a maternal and child health clinic. Health services are so limited in the region that many mothers will trek up to two days to bring a sick child in for treatment.
Jono, who is the son of Mahurangi College principal David Macleod, says most children are malnourished and suffering from diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea. Immunisation rates are among the worst in the world and many children fall victim of vaccine-preventable diseases.
But despite primitive equipment, most children who manage to get to the clinic survive due to its supply of antibiotics and other medicines.
Jono and Destinee first met and fell in love at Auckland Medical School. Their romance intensified when they both felt God had called them to study medicine for the sole purpose of serving those in poorer countries.
They first went to South Sudan in 2014 and were appalled to discover that outside the main centres doctors, midwives and nurses were almost non-existent.
Their commitment to the poor comes at a high price. Apart from when a supply plane lands about every two months, it’s impossible to secure fresh vegetables and the family survives on a daily diet of beans, rice, lentils and vitamin tablets.
Scorpions are also a hazard. One bit Ellisha in her cot, putting her in excruciating agony for 12 hours. Her parents could do little for her except supply painkillers to try to numb the pain.
Destinee admits the safety of their children is the couple’s biggest concern.
“By faith we know that God cares for our children more than we do. We’re trusting him for protection,” she says.
Luxuries are not entirely absent though. Jono admits to stocking up on his favourite Whittakers Dark Almond Chocolate before heading for Tonj. Once off the plane, he stores the stash in the otherwise unused vegetable compartment of the family’s solar-powered fridge.
