• LOCATION: Masindi, Uganda
• PROJECT: Women’s Empowerment Center and Shelter
  
• DIRECTOR: Pastors Robert and Doreen Kaahwa
• FINANCIAL NEED: $22,800 annually to operate pig farm, chicken farm, provide fuel and feeds for 2025

According to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, more than two-thirds of Ugandan women experience violence from their partners. About 68 percent had been harassed or beaten by their partners during the 12 months preceding the survey. Methods used included beating, pushing, dragging, forced sex, arm-twisting, threatening, insulting and choking. Rural women suffered more violence than urban women. Likewise, uneducated women suffered more than their educated colleagues.

In Masindi, a town about three hours from the capital of Kampala, abuse is rampant but there has been no shelter for women who are in danger, and no trained counselors to help women who are suffering in abusive marriages. In 2024 this changed when we built a women’s shelter and vocational training center for women of the region. Leading this project are Rev. Robert and Doreen Kaahwa, who lead a growing Pentecostal congregation in Masindi. The shelter provides women a place to transition from abusive environments, and it serves as a haven for healing and restoration for women and their children who have been traumatized. We also provide classes in tailoring, hair styling, baking, farming, pig and chicken raising, and literacy as well as discipleship.