It is said, “Where hope lives, possibilities follow”, this is the exact life story of 49-year-old Margaret Atai, a mother of eleven.
Atai is a single mother after being abandoned by her husband who relocated to another district and reportedly remarried. The abandonment deeply affected her, both emotionally and physically, and she fell seriously ill.
As her family grew, poverty became a daily reality. Their situation deteriorated further when heavy rains and strong winds destroyed the one-room, grass-thatched house they lived in, leaving the family without a safe shelter.
“We slept under trees, spreading mats on bare ground and covering ourselves with sacks to protect against the rain for months,” she sadly explains. This exposure put the family at serious health and security risk. Due to desperation, her young daughters went into early marriages, with six entering cohabitation as a means of survival resulting in a multitude of grandchildren.
Despite all this, Atai faced life with resilience and determination. As luck could have it, Habitat for Humanity Uganda organized a community meeting under the Sustainable Housing Project to discuss improved housing conditions in her community.
She participated and was selected as one of the beneficiaries. Habitat Uganda partnered with her family and they constructed a permanent house where they now live. “God bless Habitat,” she says. “I have nothing to give in return, but I thank God for bringing them into my life. Thank you so much,” the overjoyed mother rejoices.
Her permanent home includes a pit latrine, improved bath stand, solar lighting, and a water-harvesting tank that provides safe water for daily use.
Additionally, Habitat Uganda trained her to build and use a modern, fuel-efficient stove, greatly improving cooking conditions in her household. The project also provided agricultural inputs, including vegetable seeds, as well as tools such as a watering can. These interventions have significantly improved both food security and household income.
Atai now has a vegetable garden of her own where she harvests vegetables to feed her family.
