By Carol Davis | Founder and Pesident, Outreach Uganda
As 2013 ends, we've nearly met our fundraising goal to complete Phase II of the land purchase. What this means is that we need $6000 more by the end of January in order to make the final land payment. That's just a short distance to go out of the $100,000 that was initially needed. We're excited about how close we are and we hope you are too.
We expect to make the final payment in January 2014. We will then be busy working with the beader group members and other volunteers from the U.S. to help move the project to its next phase of Home Building. We will be working on things such as getting electricity and water to the site and determining what sort of interior road/street is needed, drawing up architectural plans for both the property and the buildings, and talking with lenders and donors about what sort of financing package can be assembled to get the homes built while still having affordable home loans that each woman is able to repay.
We're incredibly excited about what long-term impact this project can make on the lives of our Jinja women. We thought you'd like to hear directly from them what problems they face on a daily basis where they are currently living in the slums. It explains why they are thrilled to have the opportunity to have their own home in a safe area.
Here are some of their responses regarding the bad conditions where they currently live:
1. Okidi F. - The houses [in the slums] are not strong. I worry the house will collapse on me and the children. Rain comes through cracks in the house.
2. Achan C. - [Where I live,] it's swampy, no good toilets (we use the bucket system and have to offload), and it's very muddy when it rains. It's one single room for many children.
3. Rose A. - It is very, very difficult [living in the slums]. The children are mistreated by neighbors. My boy was beaten into a coma three months ago. He's okay.
4. Betty A. - You share a house with a total stranger. You have fear. What if she poisons my food. What is she kills me during the night?
5. Santa O. - My neighbor is so terrible she killed my cow and put it in a pit and covered it with rubbish.
6. Akot R. - I stay where they pour rubbish from all of Jinja. The bad smell goes even into my food. All the bad people hide there in the rubbish. It's hard to sleep at night because they can come in and kill you. Thieves steal what little you have, even during the day. They stole my clothes, sauce pan, plates, case for the clothes.
7. R. A. - A neighbor poisoned one of my twins. It kills the child slowly. She tThe neighbor] said, "You still want to live in this place even though I killed one of your children?" I leave everything to God.
8. B. O. - One of my daughters is lost. I don't know if she's alive or has been sacrificed.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
