Oliver Taban, a role model in Uganda

(Photo Credit: Edward Ahonobadha/CARE)

This is the second time that Oliver Taban has been a refugee in Uganda. The 30 year old South Sudanese grew up in Uganda before returning to what was then southern Sudan in 2004, only to flee again in 2016.

Oliver’s home is Rhino Camp, a settlement of South Sudanese refugees in Arua district in north western Uganda, where he lives with his wife and young daughter. While he once worked as a civil servant in Juba, today, being a role model is Oliver’s job.  

 “It’s important for the men to understand that they have an important role to play in a marriage, even if they are no longer able to provide for their family,” says Oliver. “The wife and the husband need to work together, the family life is a matter for both.”

“We are all refugees and in this together,” he says. “We need to support each other so that we can have a better life, especially our children.”

Asking men to re-think their relationship with their wives wasn’t an easy task. “At the beginning it was not easy to convince the other men to listen and to change their behavior,” says Oliver. “But many horrible things happened to them and their wives back in South Sudan and on their journey to Uganda.”   

With support from CARE, Oliver helps the camp’s men adjust to their new lives at Rhino. With few options for work, many are unable to provide for their families and struggle to accept this new status. To cope with this loss of self-esteem, often coupled with hopelessness, some men resort to alcohol and smoke drugs, with often devastating consequences for their wives and families, including domestic and gender based violence.

More information:

Since the spike in violence in South Sudan in July 2016, there has been a major influx of hundreds of thousands South Sudanese refugees in northwestern Uganda making it the lead refugee hosting country in Africa. There are over one million refugees from South Sudan and DRC in Uganda. Women and children make up more than 80 per cent of the refugee population. Due to the impact of the conflict on communities and households, women often take on the arduous displacement journey to seek refuge in Uganda without male relatives, carrying and caring for many children on the way. CARE Uganda supports refugees with funding from Austrian Development Agency, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ECHO, UNFPA, GAC. 

For more on our work in Uganda, click here.