Providing land and housing to 100 women in Uganda

Report October 2010

The only activity that has been successfully completed in the last three months is the purchase of one acre of land and tree seedlings to urgently settle about 4 women on the land.

As soon as we encountered the problem on our major piece of land, we started scouting around for possible pieces of land to settle the first 5 or so women onto the land. We got five pieces of land but only one was viable. We performed a search on the land in the land registry and found the land authentic. When we visited the land, there were squatters growing crops and the land had no access.

When we brought the issue of the squatters and the access road to the land lord, he said he would be responsible to take the squatters off the land but requested that we pay for the access road. We agreed to his suggestions. When we got to pay for the land, the landlord expressed a change of mind regarding payment for the settling of the squatters. He said he wanted us to pay for both settling squatters and the access road. We got a lawyer to conclude the negotiations.

On Tuesday 9 November 2010 the landlord and ourselves had a meeting with the lawyer and agreed that we shall pay for the access road on condition that the access road will be on our title as part of our land. The land lord agreed to the condition of the access road and to the condition that he would deal with getting the Local Council Chairperson to sign agreements with the squatters but insisted that we pay for the compensation of the squatters.

At the time of the report, the agreement with the land lord had been signed and a deposit of 1,000 $ paid to the landlord to enable the landlord compensate and take the squatters off the land. In seven days we expect to have a final meeting to pay the balance of the money. The landlord will at the same event hand us the agreements between him and the squatters, showing that he compensated the squatters.

We shall update on the construction and how the women are settling in, in the next 2 months. The revised work plan is attached.

Work Plan

November 2010: Boundaries finalised

                        Plots allocated to 5 women

                        Trees planted and

                        Land enclosed

December 2010: Construction of common house

                        Toilets/Bathrooms completed.

                         Also training more women in brick laying

                         Train women in construction

                         Train women in organic farming