A dream come true for Nama dwellers

May 27, 2008

Before 2005, Nalongo Namata, her three children, two nephews and younger brother, lived in a mud-and-wattle house. Namata, a tailor, was the breadwinner. When the sweeping floods came, she was sitting with her family discussing her sister’s forthcoming marriage.

By Frederick Womakuyu

Before 2005, Nalongo Namata, her three children, two nephews and younger brother, lived in a mud-and-wattle house. Namata, a tailor, was the breadwinner. When the sweeping floods came, she was sitting with her family discussing her sister’s forthcoming marriage.

But all the plans disappeared in the debris of her house, and in the weeks that followed, she coped as best she could with the sudden homelessness while tending to the injuries of her loved ones.

Today, one meets a different Namata. She has an air of confidence and accomplishment, and an infectious optimism about the future.

Reason? She just moved into a permanent house with her family. This house was constructed with the help of Stanbic Bank Nama Village Project. The project is part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility and a means of giving back to the communities.

“After decades of toiling and struggling with no hope of owning a house, God has finally heard our cry,” says Namata, a born-again Christian whose husband left her five years ago for another woman.

Nama village is located near Mbalala town in Mukono district on the Kampala-Jinja highway. The village has a population of about 70 people. The village is among the 47 villages in Uganda that are benefiting from Stanbic’s housing for the poor project.

The project has been made possible through a sh200m by the bank to help homeless people own a home. The Nama project is led by John Nfzi, the construction supervisor of Habitat for Humanity Uganda (HFHU), the implementer of the project.

Stanbic and HFHU’s initiatives seek to demonstrate that even the poor can achieve modest housing at a low cost. Most of the residents of Nama survive on less than $1 per family per day. “We thought we would never have a real home,” says Rose Apio, a resident of the village. “When Stanbic and HFHU came and told us we could have good houses, it sounded too good to be true, but they have done it.”

Each family was requested to contribute a trip of sand, stones and bricks. Residents thought it was for free, at first.

But despite the cost, they responded positively.

“We put money together by borrowing from friends and tightening our belts a little more and joined the project,” said Gorrette Namukasa, a resident.

Their nine-member family survives by running a family grocery kiosk that brings in about sh30,000 a month.

The cost they contributed for the sand, stones and bricks stretched their resources to the limit, even with the family members doing the bulk of the work.

The Nama project was launched in 2003 and in 2005, 45 housing units were completed and the residents moved in. Together with Stanbic, HFHU consulted local leaders to identify beneficiaries. “Stanbic wanted to help people with no source of income. They also targeted widows and orphans,” adds Nfzi.

After completion of the houses, residents were asked to contribute a bag of cement every month for 10 years to cover for the cost of cement, nails, doors and other requirements used in the construction valued at sh3.5m. “These are not free houses. It is like a mortgage,” said Nfzi. “It is an indirect way to make poor people work for something.”

“People in this place used to suffer. But I thought we could help them build decent houses to replace their mud-and-wattle huts and bamboo lean-tos or crowded single rooms in multifamily dwellings. We did and their lives are slowly transforming,” says Daniel Nsibambi, the communications manager of Stanbic Bank.

A community borehole has been constructed and an all-weather road has been opened, linking the village to the Kampala-Jinja highway.

Thanks to rural electrification, a power line now passes through the village and for the first time, families will be able to use it. “We were told to settle all our debts for the houses first. That is when we shall be able to use power,” said Namukasa.

The housing project has relieved some people of paying rent, enabling them to open up shops. “When I completed payment for the house, I opened up a shop and the money I’m getting from it is helping me pay for food and school fees for my children. It was a miracle that Stanbic thought of us,” says Namata.

Aspha Nalwanga says the project came with a family farm. “With my own house and a small farm in the backyard, I’m able to grow food. This has reduced my expenditure on food because I am able to grow cassava and maize.”

Nsibambi, who commissioned the project, said the new concept should be transferred to other regions in the country to help spur development. “This will bring an enormous change in the minds of the people and this is how a country can build for its poor,” he adds.

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