Good Bye Slums. Help 40 Uganda Women Build Homes.

Our Board treasurer, Wendy, and her husband just returned from two weeks in Uganda.  They spent the latter portion of their visit in Jinja and were quite excited to see both the land for our project as well as tour the slums where many of our women artisans live.  Wendy commented that "Their houses are terrible.  We store our lawnmowers in a better bulding than that."  And upon further reflection elaborated that even our cows in the U.S. have better places to live than the homes she visited. While visiting in the slum areas where many of our women live, Wendy noted that a road is being constructed through one section of the slum.  This will cause numerous rented homes to be destroyed in the process including two homes where our Jinja women live.

For reasons like this, we know our home building needs to begin as soon as possible. We have put in quite a few hours these past few months continuing to make progress on getting electricity to the property. We have spoken with four different companies regarding the cost to drill a water well on the property.  We expect to have electricity to the property before year-end.  Our primary fund-raising effort relative to drilling the well has been re-scheduled to occur in March.  Because of that we are expecting to drill the well as soon as possible in either late March or April. 

During the interim time, we are simultaneously pursuing funding options for the first phase of homes.  The Jinja women are continuing to save money for home down payments.  If you would like to purchase any ornaments for the upcoming holidays, this also helps provide funding for our home ownership project. 

We will continue to keep you updated as to our progress.  Thank you so much for your support!

Links:

• Buy the women's beaded ornaments
• See current events on facebook

We, as well as our Jinja women, are very excited to see progress being made on common area improvements for the home building site.  We just returned from our June/July trip to Uganda.  We are in the process of obtaining bids for a well to provide water to the property, and well as discussing with the electricity provider on how best to bring electricity to the property. Currently, electrical installation costs are lower than normal, so we hope that we can complete this portion of the improvements as soon as possible before prices rise again.  We are also beginning to talk with builders who might want to be involved with this project and well as any banks or other NGOs who might want to provide construction financing or otherwise donate to the project.

Long term, we hope that solar power can be used to replace electricity as much as possible to keep long term usage costs low for the projects' home owners.  While in Jinja, we viewed homes built by a local builder which are very similar in size to those we want to build.  We also visited the Jinja Showground's July show for ideas on how small home gardens might look, as well as ideas and equipment for well drilling and solar panels.  

We are currently seeking twelve fundraising "team captains" who will spearhead funding for each individual home, which for simplicity's sake, we will call Home 1, Home 2... up to Home 12.  Only after construction has started will the women be selected (according to a predetermined agreed upon method) to be in the first phase of homes.  Even then, the woman must have her down payment money in hand or she will forfeit her space in that phase.  Money raised as part of this project will be applied ratably to each home in the first phase unless the donor specifies a specific number.

Meanwhile, the Jinja women continue to market their craft products and conduct their local businesses to build up their down payment funds. We'll continue to update you as thecommon area improvments are completed this fall!