AFRICA/UGANDA - Laid the first foundations of the health center in Yoro for thousands of refugees: a work illuminated by the hope that comes from the Cross

Yoro (Agenzia Fides) - "We finally have the foundations of the new health center in Yoro in which we are involved in assisting refugees in this northwestern part of the country", reports to Fides Sister Laura Gemignani, a Comboni missionary who, together with her sisters, follows the battered population arriving from neighboring countries, including South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"Currently we are three sisters, but we hope that others will join us because the situation here is really complicated", says the missionary on how the initiative was carried out.
"After three drilling attempts, we finally have water and that gives us great hope. It is risky to start at this moment with a world crisis that has no precedent and start a mission. It is a difficult battle but with the Lord's help we are confident we can do it".
Sister Laura explains that the mission should mainly deal with health care, which is "the first request made by the local population together with the refugees and also the local authorities. And through health care, reach out to women and children, who are the most vulnerable people, and carry out medical, training and trauma recovery programs with them, because they have gone through indescribable experiences by fleeing South Sudan. Many of these women were attacked and raped by a gentleman from Uganda, who did criminal things that cannot be told".
"I am happy and content - adds the missionary - I feel I am in the hands of the Lord as never before. This work must be enlightened by the hope that comes from the Cross because it is the only thing that our Founder, Daniele Comboni, left us as an inheritance. He wants us to be practical, contemplative, fearless. When we feel weak and have stumbled over some stones, the Lord lifts us up, puts us on his shoulders and takes us home.
"Today is a beautiful day here - he concludes as he speaks to us - I need a lot of prayers because they are like the bricks that build the foundation of the next mission where the proclamation of hope, of freedom, of love, the proclamation that Jesus brought us with the Gospel, I would like it to be lived, shouted out".
This work is possible thanks to the small Volunteer Organization that the sisters created together with a benefactor who has been working with them for more than a decade, "so that we can concentrate all our forces in one place without dispersing", Sister Laura explained.
Yoro is located near the refugee camp known as 'Rhino kamp', which hosts 130,000 displaced people, 80 percent of whom are women and children. Geographically located the in Madi-Okollo and Terego districts of northwestern Uganda, it was opened in 1980 and was expanded following South Sudan's civil war to accommodate the sudden influx of refugees into northern Uganda. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 25/3/2023)

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