OUR team
Board of Directors
Founder
Dr Mawien M Arik, holds MBChB from the prestigious Makerere University Uganda, the only medical doctor serving his village of Lou-Ariik in South Sudan, with an estimated population of 300,000. He returned home after achieving a medical degree within Africa with hope to contribute to a positive change. He founded Akougook Initiative, a grass root organization with a vision of self-reliant remote villages in South Sudan living in peace empowering women and children. His programs focus on health, education and peacebuilding. He believes in using health as a bridge to peace . Dr Arik is a Mandala Washington fellow, 2019 alumni a flagship program of Young African Leaders Initiaitve and also a Generation change fellow, a youth wing program of United State Institute of Peace. Arik is a consultant trainer in communication, negotiation and mediation for conflict management.
Director Education Programs
Atekdit graduated in the field of Education with a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry in Upper Nile University (South Sudan). He has as well undertaken several trainings in both media and education sectors. Atekdit has experienced working extensively as a freelance writer and a journalist with various media companies as radio, print and an online journalist since 2008. Atekdit has also been working in education as a classroom teacher in Primary & Secondary Education as well as being a trainer for Primary Education Teachers. Currently Atekdit is working with one of the International Humanitarian Organization implementing an Education Project. He has experienced working in most of the hostile and insecure areas in South Sudan working as a journalist or implementing a humanitarian assistance for the affected population.
Director Health Programs
Andrew Kamau is a critical care nurse with over five years of experience in clinical work and 1-year of experience in program management. He has worked with eight hospitals in Uganda often in managerial and leadership positions and serving people of midlevel to low socio-economic status. Andrew is driven by the passion to improve access to health care for equality in health care and has dedicated a lot of his time towards health care equity. He is currently a volunteer with Rafiki home, where he leads communications, recruitment, manages health services delivery, and oversees the day-to-day operations. Rafiki homes is an organization in Kenya that takes care of children living with HIV/AIDs. These children are often from a low economic backgrounds with minimal or no access to quality healthcare, education, and nutrition. Andrew will join the team to drive access to quality sexual reproductive health services in remote areas to reach areas.
Director Finance
Ajak Makuei is a graduate of Bachelor of Business, major in Management and Human Resource Management at Edith Cowan University Australia. Ajak is passionate about women’s fashion and is venturing into clothing. Besides all that, Ajak has been giving back to communities in various capacity including advocating for elderly care, women, and children’s health.
Juba Office Cordinator
Graduated with a diploma in Food Science, Nutrition, and Health in ZETECH University Nairobi Kenya and also attained both certificate & Diploma in computer packages in Rohk College in Nairobi Kenya. Went to Sigalame boys School for Certificate of Kenya Secondary Education. Also trained as a scout for a number of years and awarded a certificate of participation. Currently volunteering with a National organization Solidarity Ministries African For Reconciliation and Development [SMARD], doing awareness on transitional Government and formation of a Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing in South Sudan, funded by UNDP. He has done internships with the ministry of Health in Munuki Primary Healthcare Center outpatient at the Nutrition section doing the Counseling Anthropometry and distribution of supplementary feeds to the malnourished patients and inpatient in Alsabbah Children’s Hospital for the same reason
Advisory Board
Dr. Ginger Floerchinger-Franks was born in San Francisco, California and has lived in the western United States for most of her life. She currently lives in Boise, Idaho.
Dr. Floerchinger-Franks spent much of her career working in different areas of public health – from bench microbiologist to managing a statewide injury prevention program. After having worked as a virologist, and later supervisor of virology, specimen intake and processing for the Orange County, California public health laboratory, she moved to the Riverside County, California to work as the manager of the public health laboratory. While there, she established a virology laboratory. From there she returned to school in 1992 and earned a doctorate in public health at Loma Linda University in southern California.
Dr. Floerchinger-Franks moved to Idaho in 1996 to manage the state-level injury prevention program for the Idaho Department of Public Health. There she worked with health districts throughout the state to promote child and adult motor vehicle injury prevention, bicycle safety for school children, sexual assault prevention,
child sexual abuse prevention, and fall prevention for older adults. She received the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Association of State and Territorial Directors of Health Promotion and Public Health Educators award for Health Promotion Excellence for her work on these projects. She also worked with communities and partners throughout the state to develop Idaho’s first statewide suicide prevention plan. She was honored with the Director’s Award of Excellence from the Idaho Department of Health for this work.
Dr. Floerchinger-Franks spent the last nine years of her career working for the Idaho Hospital Association. There she worked to establish a statewide trauma registry in order to collect information on serious injuries needed for developing prevention programs at personal, environmental and policy levels. She received an Excellence in Public Health Award from the Idaho Public Health Association for this work. She spent her final four years at the Idaho Hospital Association working with national and state programs to assist Idaho hospitals with quality improvement.
On retiring, Dr. Floerchinger-Franks returned to school taking writing classes in order to write the history of public health in Idaho from territorial-hood through the end of World War II. She spent a year of the project reviewing death certificates and other information in order to trace the incidence and spread of Spanish influenza in Idaho. She hopes to have the first draft of the book completed by December of 2020
Thandi is a medical doctor with six years of work experience. Dr Milton holds a postgraduate diploma in tropical medicine from London school of Tropical Medicine and is currently completing a Master of Science in Epidemiology and Implementation science as a World Health Organization fellow at Wits University in South Africa. She also has a certificate in advanced project management from the same institute. In her current role as senior physician at the Botswana UPenn (University of Pennsylvania) partnership, she works in over 25 clinics in the Gaborone area and coordinates the implementation of screening guidelines for Cryptococcal meningitis in the city’s infections disease clinics. The team has screened over 2000 patients since January 2018, with the goal of expanding access to the rest of Botswana. Dr Milton plans to apply for grant funding to pursue and launch her own projects implementing health policies and interventions within the health sector. In addition to her medical work, Dr Milton has expertise in Epidemiology, Implementation Science and Project management.
Maya Duratovic holds a Master’s degree in Business and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources from Boise State University. Currently, Maya works at Boise State University as the Department Manager for English. In her free time, she volunteers with non-profit organizations that promote cultural understanding and citizen diplomacy. Having lived through the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and arriving to the United States as a refugee, she feels passionate about creating world peace and harmony amongst community members
Salva Dut was born in a rural village in southwestern Sudan to the Dinka tribe. At 11 years old, the Sudanese Civil War reached his village and separated Salva from his family. He joined thousands of boys, famously known as the “Lost Boys,” on their journey by foot to seek safety in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. After living in refugee camps for 10 years, Salva was given the opportunity to move to the United States, where he was embraced by a family in Rochester, New York. Several years later, Salva learned that his father was still alive in Southern Sudan but was suffering with disease caused by waterborne parasites. His father’s illness inspired Salva to help both his father and his country by bringing clean water to those in need.
He is the founder of Water for South Sudan (WFSS)
Salva’s story is told in the New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Sally holds undergraduate and post graduate qualifications in business/financial management and has a background in working in executive and management teams in human resource and business management with a strong emphasis on business improvement. Initially commencing her career as an external auditor at Ernst & Young, Sally has worked across a variety of different industries both in private, public and not for profit sectors including the Health & Medical sector.
In addition to her business background, Sally is also a trauma therapist/advisor and now has a busy private practice in Melbourne working alongside integrative doctors in serving complex clients with PTSD and CPTSD. Sally is also involved in assisting in trauma-based training programs both in her home country Australia and internationally.
She has a strong interest in working with vulnerable communities in developing countries including working with girl/women survivors of sex trafficking in Nepal and more recently with Akougook Initiative. Sally travelled to South Sudan in 2019 alongside Dr Mawien M Arik to visit first hand and to understand further the complexities Akougook Initiative faces and the Lou-Ariik community urgent health needs. Sally is committed to helping the people of South Sudan and Dr Mawien M Arik in achieving his inspiring and dedicated vision.
Local Clinic Staff
Gabriel Abior Guer
Mr Abior is a clinical officer with over 10 years in clincal medicine in rural villages, he obtained his diploma in Maridi Training Inistutue. Abior is a former under the tree student that began his education in Lou-Ariik Village. Hes determine to giving back to his community.
Ms. Achol is a senior traditional birth attendant. She is the first employee of the clinic since it was build in 2005, Appointed by Mr Akougook a.k.a Toby Mawien to serve as a principal midwife. She has dedicated her time to this work since then and help conducted deliveries such as shoulder dystocia and various other malpresentation. Acholdit has no former education in medicine, but sh is a wonderful teacher and now plays a role in educating aspiring midwives in the clinic.
Ms Akit Kuol Dhor
Akit is incharge of the maternal child health. She devotes her time to teaching women on how to take care of their newborn babies. She has skills in kangaroo-mother care techniques.
Peter, holds a certificate in Labaratory . He’s passionate in his work and responsible for critical proceedures such as taking samples and analyzing them. He runs the Microbiology unit of the clinic
Mr Arkanjelo Koul
Mr Kuol is a registered midwife who holds a diploma from Marry Help Institute in 2019. He is passionate about women’s health. He helps with passing on his formal education in midwifery to the team in maternity as the in-charge team leader.
Benjamin is a construction engineer from Ugandan with over 25 years of experience in the East African countries. He was the lead builder of the Akougook clinic in Lou Arik village South Sudan and is currently supervising the construction and renovation works of the organization.
