In South Sudan, cervical cancer remains largely undetected and untreated. Screening facilities are scarce and there is no HPV vaccination program. When Dr. Idyoro Ojukwu first arrived at Juba Teaching Hospital in 2015, women diagnosed with cervical cancer were handed referral letters to Khartoum, a thousand miles away, with no means to make the journey. Women were dying not because their cancers were untreatable, but because the systems to treat them did not exist.
One patient’s relative told her: “I feel my sister just died because she’s a woman. She was not able to get treatment. Whatever money she had, she was using it for her kids.” That moment inspired Idyoro to pursue oncology, a specialty she had not previously considered.
Today, Idyoro is South Sudan’s only gynaecological oncologist. She has always been committed to the work but didn’t always feel ready to lead it visibly. Through the WomenLift Health Leadership Journey, that shifted for her. She strengthened her ability to advocate across institutions and navigate competing health priorities, making the case for cervical cancer in rooms where safe motherhood and family planning dominated the agenda. “It is up to us as women to navigate around this,” she says. That clarity gave her the confidence to stand for President of the Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians of South Sudan, a position she was elected to in November 2025. “That is one impact of the Leadership Journey,” she shared. “It gave me the strength now to take this position”.
She also used that leadership stance to push the system into motion. A direct conversation with the Ministry of Health’s Director General led to the commission of South Sudan’s first cervical cancer screening guidelines, which she developed with WHO, and used to train 25 healthcare providers across the country’s initial screening facilities.
Idyoro is now one of South Sudan’s most vocal advocates for cervical cancer prevention services and HPV vaccination. She is determined to make cervical cancer a national priority, one conversation and one guideline at a time.