Two British Missionary Doctors, Ted and Peter Williams – the Williams brothers belonging to Africa Inland Mission – founded Kuluva Hospital in 1947. The Institution was officially opened in June 1951. At the beginning there was an interest and emphasis on eye, leprosy and cancer work. The Hospital gained an international reputation when the WHO Burkitt’s Lymphoma/Epstein-Barr virus study was based at Kuluva in the 1970’s. It was then turned over to Madi/West Nile Diocese of Church of Uganda also in the 1970’s. During the difficult period of the liberation war and its aftermath in the early 1980’s, Kuluva was the only Hospital in the District to remain at all times. By 1986, more staff – both national and international – came to work at the Hospital, to establish new projects and to re-establish old projects. Originally an 80-bed Hospital in the ‘50s, Kuluva has expanded to 210 beds to date.
The Hospital; a rural Institution providing basic inpatient and outpatient care is located within Kuluva Parish of Vurra County in Arua District within West Nile Region, 10 kilometers south of Arua City on the main road to Kampala. It is 8 km east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border, and about 65 km south of South Sudan.
Kuluva Hospital is a private not for profit hospital owned by the Registered Trustees of the Church of Uganda in Ma’di and West Nile Diocese. The Hospital was founded by the William Brothers in 1942 as a clinic for treating people affected by leprosy and eye patients who were marginalized in the communities in West Nile Region. In 1951, it was registered as a general hospital and it has grown to bed capacity of 210. Kuluva Hospital serves as the district hospital of Arua District local government with a fully functioning primary health care unit run by the office of DHO Arua. It is a member of Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) and forms part of the Protestant Church Healthcare network in Uganda.
