Palabek Refugee Settlement
Available Ministries
- Teacher (Primary)
- Teacher (Secondary)
- Cosmetology
- Electrical
- Motorcycle & Auto Repair
- Dentist
- General First Aid
- Nurse & Nurses Aide
- Physician
- Maternal & Child Care
- Social Work
- Youth Centre
Current Volunteers
Ministry Background
The Palabek Refugee Camp was officially established in April 2016 to address crowding problems in the largest refugee camps in the northwestern part of Uganda. Several institutions are involved in providing food and education within the camp. While some have decided to leave due to the pandemic, the Salesians have remained and have continued to offer education to refugee children in the camp.
Purpose & Objectives
The Salesian missionaries who live and work in the refugee camp in Palabek, Uganda, provide adequate education to the children among the 56,000 total refugees and asylum seekers in the camp.
There are 100 children in primary school, 54 in secondary school, and 25 older young people in the “Don Bosco” Vocational Training Center, where they learn skills in sewing, solar energy management, mechanics, agriculture, construction, hairdressing.
The Salesians also run a special sponsorship program to help young people attend school outside the camp. Many older children and young people have to walk 10 to 15 kilometers each day to get to school. The sponsorship program allows Salesians to take young people to shelters outside the camp, closer to schools. Kids can live and study there, as well as have access to healthy eating and recreational activities.
For older young people who want to learn technical skills not offered by the camp’s Don Bosco VTC, the Salesians also offer a support program. The children are in fact taken to other centers, where they can learn to be plumbers, blacksmiths, drives, farm hands and many other skills.
Programs, Activities, & Other Projects
SLMs can help wherever their skillsets allow, but some opportunities include: vocational school, nursery school, parish ministry, and helping at the youth center. The Vocational Training Center (VTC) is comprised of 6 departments: solar energy, sewing, agriculture, hairdressing, motorcycle mechanics, and building and construction. SLMs can help in any of those areas, depending on their skills/interests.
Area Information
Palabek, which in the local language “Acholi”, means: “keep your sword in your bag and fight no more”, has an area of 400 square kilometers. Palabek is located in the extreme north of Uganda, very close to the border with South Sudan (about 30 kilometers from the border). Some people who knew the place always say: “It was a desert bush, an empty space, without life, without a single shelter”, but now it is inhabited by more than 56,000 refugees from South Sudan and some 15,000 Ugandans, most of them Catholics.