| Established in July 2005, CPAR-Pader is CPAR-Uganda's newest field office. |
| Currently, CPAR-Pader's programs are focused on mine action, the renovation of health centers and peace building. |
| CPAR-Uganda, together with the Pader District Local Government was motivated to build the new field office because of the need to create awareness among the civilian population and offer support to landmine survivors and war injured persons. |
| Pader is one of the most severely affected districts from in the north, suffering the effects of the conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Uganda's government forces. |
| Pader is more vulnerable to LRA rebel activity due to its geographical location. When the LRA rebels intensified their operation in 1998, the use of mines in Pader was inevitable to deter government forces from attacking them and also to scare the civilian population from moving back to their villages after night commuting. As such, the people were forced to live in gated camps for safety. Many lives were lost and others were injured due to landmine and accidents. To-date, the district has a population of 477,000 people living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. |
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| With the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and district officials, CPAR-Uganda broadened their Mine Action Program from Gulu to Pader with a focus on two major components: |
| Mine Risk Education |
| Because the community in Pader is vulnerable to mine-related accidents, mine risk awareness is a priority. As a result, 137 local leaders have been sensitized, 46 mine risk educators have been trained, and five advocacy groups were established. |
| Landmine Survivor Assistance |
| Under this component, CPAR is offering psychosocial support to landmine survivors while empowering them to fight the stigma associated with landmine injury. CPAR is also providing them with sufficient economic support to meet their basic needs. |
| This project has supported 150 direct beneficiaries, and of the 150, 90 are benefiting from revolving seed capital and 60 have benefited through vocational skill training under the program's economic support component. |
| Twenty-five Community Counseling Aides (CCAs) were identified and trained in basic psychosocial skills from 23 camps within the program areas. These trained CCAs are providing counseling services for survivors and their families focused on reintegrating of the survivors into their communities. |
| Other Programs |
| CPAR is also working with the district health sector in Pader by identifying and prioritizing areas of intervention in areas where CPAR is constructing health centres. |
