Sarah’s Shelters is a fund set up in memory of a young woman called Sarah Gibson who died in November 2004 at the age of 33 years from a brain tumour. The fund enables UWCM’s community volunteer groups to assist vulnerable families (usually a mother with children) to buy a small plot of land and construct a traditional home.
Members of the communities donate the wooden poles and work together to build these new shelters. Our funding enables them to buy the land, if necessary, plus the iron sheets and other materials. The following story is a good example of how lives can be transformed through this project and also through belonging to a Women’s Group:
In January 2023 we were able to meet an amazing lady called Gaudencia who, through no fault of her own, lost her home and all her crops but, with the support of Luzzi Women’s group and our funding, has been able to start to re-build her life. Gaudencia is married to Godfrey and they were living in a large traditional shelter with 14 dependents (6 children of their own plus her late sister’s family and her 80 year old father-in-law). Her husband has mental health issues and is unable to work and so Gaudencia is the main breadwinner for all the family (she works as a cleaner in a local pharmacy). One day when they were all out, a man came and, tragically, hung himself from the rafters at the front of their house. When his relatives discovered what had happened they came and destroyed the whole house, including the iron roof sheets, and destroyed all the matooke and other crops on their land saying that Gaudencia’s family must be cursed. According to local tradition, they then took the rope that the man had used to hang himself to the police who charged Gaudencia 200,000 UGS (approx. £45)!
Gaudencia didn’t know what to do as she had no money but, thankfully, she belongs to a Women’s Group and was able to borrow money from the microfinance scheme. UWCM provided 15 x iron sheets and Gaudencia bought more sheets to construct another large shelter to accommodate the 14 people within her household. She also had to buy 3 loads of soil as the soil where she lives is not the right sort for shelter construction and as the roads are very poor in that area, they had to carry the wet soil on their heads using plastic containers!
While the house is being constructed Gaudencia and all the family are renting 2 x small rooms and they cook outside which is very difficult especially in the rainy season. When we visited they had made good progress and we were told that the shelter should be completed by early February. See below for photos of Gaudencia and her family taken in January 2023 – as you can see the track down to her house is very steep and narrow and UWCM had provided mattresses but these had to be taken to a nearby home to store until Gaudencia’s home is finished.
Although, at times, the number of people living in desperate conditions can seem overwhelming, the following two extracts from UWCM’s January 2022 Q1 report show how successful this project is in transforming lives:
It is not in vain that we help needy people with shelter construction like Nabuzale Beatrice. She is now settled in her home and she began a business selling Matooke (plantain bananas) and greens, and even if the husband does not help her, she is now comfortable! In addition to that and after lockdown, she started carrying Matooke for people to the market from which she earns some money. We thank God that Beatrice is now empowered and independent and her dignity is restored.
We managed to visit the family of Zeuriah for whom we constructed a shelter in 2018 and we were very impressed by the progress she has made in her home. She has improved the house structure and her children are very healthy and have grown up.
Uganda Concern UK 