The Katikiro of Buganda Kingdom Charles Peter Mayiga has launched the Decent Living campaign in Mawokota County, Mpigi district.
The Buganda Kingdom in partnership with Habitat For Humanity Uganda (HFHU), last year, kicked off a five-year campaign which aims at improving the lives of vulnerable families through improved decent shelter, hygiene and sanitation, access to safe water and improved livelihoods in the 18 counties of the Kingdom.
While officiating at the launch of the campaign in Butoolo-Kamengo, Mpigi District on Tuesday, the Katikiro lauded HFHU for working with the kingdom to restore the dignity of vulnerable people.
“Buganda Kingdom’s pride is based on its people. We cannot be respected when our people are living indecently. That is why we came up with this campaign to improve the wellbeing of our people. If they are proud and respected, even the kingdom is respected as well,” Katikiro Mayiga noted after laying a brick on the foundation of Ms Margaret Nakiganda’s house, one of the beneficiaries of the campaign.
“The kingdom together with its partners shall ensure that the campaign is a success. Remember when we collected over Shs10 billion from the ‘Toofali’ project. All that money came from you people.So if we work together again we can build decent homes for our people,” he added.
The first decent home under this campaign was built in Katabi, in Busiro county. It was officially handed over to Abubakar Ssentongo by the Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi during his 26th coronation in July 2019. And now the campaign has been extended to Mawokota county where two widows have benefited.
In a few weeks time, the two decent homes will be completed and ready for use by beneficiaries.
Robert Otim, the Country Director for HFHU said housing is still a very big challenge in Uganda. He disclosed that over 12 million Ugandans do not have a place to live in decently.
“According to the statistics from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, Uganda has a housing deficit of 1.2 million units and that figure keeps on increasing over the years. By 2022, Uganda’s population is projected to be about 48 million. The population growth is expected to require more than 3 million more housing units. ” Mr Otim said.
“Our goal is to have everyone live decently that’s why we partnered with Buganda Kingdom to improve the livelihoods of the vulnerable people through affordable housing. Our target is to build 20 houses across the counties of Buganda by the end of June next year.”
One of the beneficiaries, Ms. Nakinganda, resident of Butoolo village, Kiryambidde parish currently lives in a substandard house with a leaking roof with her four children, four grandchildren and three relatives.
The 50 year old widow revealed that she always wanted to sleep in a decent home but did not have the capability.
“I’m so excited that my life is going to change for the better since HFHU and Buganda kingdom are setting up for me a good house,” Ms Nakiganda stated.
Mode of selection of beneficiaries:
For one to selected for the campaign, one must be a widow with orphans and living in poor conditions. The beneficiary must also own a piece of land with legal documents.
According to Mawokoto county chief Kayima Gabriel Kabonge, when Kabaka Mutebi appointed him and his deputies to the positions, they started to visit all residents (house to house) in the county so it was easy for his team to identify the vulnerable Kabaka subjects who needed to benefit from the campaign.
“…That’s how we discovered Margaret Nakiganda and Josephine Nabwegamu. There standards of living are so terrible. For Namaganda apart from living in a substandard house, she is looking after her children of which some are suffering from sickle cell and asthma. Even Nabwegamu’s story is not so different from that of Namaganda so we found them deserving. I want to thank HFHU for partnering with the kingdom to better lives of Ugandans,” Mr Kabonge said.
“What we are doing now is to give people hope. You know when people lose hope they cannot work so by building for them free houses, we are changing their lives and this gives them hope.”
The function was also attended by Prince David Wasajja,Buganda Ministers as well as other officials from the kingdom and HFHU.
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