- LOCATION: Masindi, Uganda
- PROJECT: Women’s Empowerment Center
- DIRECTOR: Pastors Robert and Doreen Kaahwa
- FINANCIAL NEED: $70,000 Remaining construction costs
$22,800 for pig farm, chicken farm, fuel and feeds for 2023
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.
68%
During Last 12 Months Preceding the Survey.
***
Beating, pushing, dragging, forced sex, arm-twisting, threatening, insulting and choking.
In Masindi, a town about three hours from the capital of Kampala, abuse is rampant but there is no shelter for women who are in danger, and no trained counselors to help women who are suffering in abusive marriages. We plan to change that by building the first women’s shelter in that region of Uganda. Leading this project are Rev. Robert and Doreen Kaahwa, who lead C-3 Church, a growing Pentecostal congregation in Masindi. The shelter will give women a place to transition from abusive environments, and it will serve as a place for healing and restoration for women and their children who have been traumatized.
We have already established a pig farm, vegetable farm and tailoring school to empower underprivileged women to start small businesses. In 2021 we bought more than 60 sewing machines to help women start microbusinesses, and they all went through a three-month training course. Now we need funds to build a women’s center on our property for entrepreneurial training, counseling and discipleship courses. This center will also pull women out of prostitution and poverty. We have already invested the first $30,000 and construction is underway.
