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Uganda: Pader Staff Working in a War Zone PADER, Uganda, January 29, 2007 — In war-torn areas, PSI/Uganda staffers engage in high-risk behavior to provide residents with HIV counseling and testing and free household water treatment that could save their lives. The language here is rich with military references: “We are all soldiers,” says the district health inspector. “Either someone is a rebel, former rebel, former abductee or government soldier.” The area has experienced a 20-year conflict that has seen the destruction of infrastructure and made the delivery of health services difficult. The best hotel in the area has deplorable sanitation, security is not guaranteed, movement stops at 15:00 and if you go one kilometer from the town centre, you must be escorted by the military. Only the United Nations has armored vehicles and bullet-proof jackets. This war has seen brutal killings, abductions, ambushes, rapes and mutilations to the extent that very few health workers choose to work here. PSI/Uganda's Pader team of counselors, lab technicians, drivers and administrators brave the tension, uncertainty, regular gunfire and uncomfortable living conditions every day in order to reach vulnerable people in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The team provides voluntary HIV counseling and testing, conducts dramas and other behavior change activities and distributes free WaterGuard to households within the camps. PSI/Uganda, with funding from UNICEF, has an office in Pader and has trained 794 community owned resource persons and 496 peer educators in order to sensitize people on sanitation and hygiene issues. An estimated 32,595 people have been reached over the past six months with interpersonal communications, and 7,134 IDPs and 4,160 soldiers and their families have been tested for HIV. Those who are tested and found positive are given PSI/Uganda’s Basic Care Package, which contains products and information that enable individuals to prevent opportunistic infections and delay the need for antiretroviral drugs. Post-test clubs and social support groups for youth have been established in each camp and technical assistance provided to the few health centers available to enable them to deliver prevention of mother-to-child transmission services. — Julius Lukwago, PSI/Uganda
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