Between two fires: ensuring comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for people in conflict situations

Welcome to Labora

Without our Member Association, Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), the 3000 residents of Labora would be without access to health care.

Labora Resettlement Village is located less than 30 kilometers from the town of Gulu, the heart of northern Uganda and the epicenter of Uganda’s 20-year civil war. 

With over one million people displaced by the conflict across the North, resettlement villages like these dot the landscape. 

Although it lies only 30 kilometers from Gulu, Labora Resettlement Village is largely isolated. 

Dirty water, poor sanitation, inadequate infrastructure, and poverty profoundly shape the community and the experience of its residents. 

Over the past two years, RHU has tackled a series of difficult issues through its work in the resettlement villages with funding support from the Korea Action Fund. 

In Labora, RHU has:

• employed behavioral change communication
• encouraged family planning
• promoted the awareness of sexual and reproductive health rights

For villages like Labora, the RHU is the primary health care provider. 

Without the weekly visits by RHU nurses, counselors, and laboratory technicians, the thousands of villagers living in Labora would not have access to these vital services.

The RHU provides an essential service and is increasing the quality of life for those living in Labora. 

On just one typical visit by the RHU, as many as eighty people may consult the service provider. 

Young children who have malaria or worms are able to receive vital medicine because of the work that the RHU does.

Without this medication and the RHU clinicians, Labora’s residents would go untreated. 

Other residents who have more serious conditions may be referred to local hospitals and be given treatment there. 

Without the RHU outreach work, these critically ill patients may remain untreated and even preventable conditions could result in death.

Labora’s Residents and Vulnerable Populations

Like much of northern Uganda, Labora camp is home to many vulnerable populations, and RHU works closely with local partners to ensure that their needs are met. 

RHU oversees four different support groups in Labora:

• child mothers
• formerly abducted children
• male returnees
• witnesses to violence and atrocities

With the help and guidance of RHU’s team of professional counselors and educators, these groups have a source of support and aid.