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.
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 