RUMPs Training
Community Process Facilitators – Julias Nyerere
From Flight to Hope — Joselin’s Story of Courage, Community and a Child’s Second Chance
Joselin Chandiru was born into a family of six in Kembe Boma, Lujule Payam, Morobo County, South Sudan. In 2017, the fighting forced her family to flee; they first crossed into DR Congo and later walked toward the Ugandan border, a journey that ended at Keri Reception Centre in Koboko before they were transferred to Imvepi Refugee Settlement.
The war left deep scars; while working on the farm her uncle was shot and killed in front of her, his body left unburied, and Joselin herself as wounded by the unknown gunmen. The family’s hardship deepened after arrival in Imvepi — in 2019 her parents separated and her father remarried; Joselin was raised by her single mother and, with no one to support her schooling, she made the painful decision to marry young and become the mother of two small children. After the birth of their first child her husband left for Juba; when she became pregnant again he stopped supporting her.
Despite that abandonment, Joselin kept going. A Village Health Team (VHT) identified her as meeting the selection criteria for the Lewin’s Trust “Happy & Healthy Mothers” project and she was enrolled in the Iyete group. Through the group she received a maama kit, agricultural inputs (hoes, seeds etc), a mosquito net and regular health education from VHTs and the community midwife, Asaba. She joined the group savings and leaned on the women around her for practical help and for the quiet strength of companionship.
When labour began for her second child the preparation she had received made a life‑saving difference: she had the maama kit and the group helped rush her to Yinga Health Centre III. The midwife there detected complications and referred her to Arua Regional Referral Hospital, where an emergency caesarean section was performed. Because she had the kit and the referral pathway, the delivery itself was managed and she returned home with her baby boy. The baby, born on 13 March 2026, initially seemed well, but within a month Joselin noticed the child’s head enlarging. She reported this to VHT Tamalu and was referred back to Yinga and then to Arua for further assessment. The family’s limited resources were exhausted by treatment costs and transport; without funds she had to return home in despair.
A pastor visited and, moved by her situation, provided transport money and connections that enabled Joselin and her baby to reach Mbale Specialized Children’s Hospital. Hospital staff supported her, the doctors performed scans and placed a drain to relieve the fluid in the baby’s brain, and the child received urgent care without Joselin being asked for payment.
Through every step Joselin kept the lessons and the companionship of her group close. She says the maama kit and the midwife’s teaching helped her survive the delivery and understand the baby’s condition; the counselling and solidarity of her Iyete group kept her from collapsing under grief.
“Even if my current situation is like this, I am so hopeful that one day, I will smile again.”
Joselin’s story is not only one of loss and hardship; it is also a testament to what targeted, community‑based support can do. The Lewin’s Trust project gave her the practical items that made a safe delivery possible, the health education that helped her recognise danger signs, and a circle of women who offered counsel and courage. When a pastor and strangers in a distant hospital intervened, their compassion bought time and treatment for her child. What remains is a clear, urgent need: funds to cover the specialist surgery her son requires, and sustained support for Joselin so she can recover her health and her capacity to care for her children. Support for Joselin would not only change one family’s future; it would honour the very purpose of the community groups that stood with her: to protect mothers, to save children, and to restore dignity where conflict and poverty have taken so much.
To donate to our healthcare projects, the 'Happy & Healthy Mothers' project or to hear more about Joselin and her children, please get in touch.
