Betty is building a house. A brick house.

Her family owns five acres of land where they keep a cow and grow cassava. She grew up on that plot of land until the rebel activity in the 1980s forced her family to relocate. For 20 years they were displaced, only returning in 2007 when the LRA had left the region.

Currently, Betty’s family is living in huts. The yearly renovation required for upkeep of the huts has been costly, and it has become more challenging for her to find the grass she needs for the roofs. The solution, Betty decided, was to build a house. The new house she is planning will have six rooms, where she and her mother and brothers can comfortably live.

“Making bricks is one step,” says Betty. Once she finishes the 20,000 bricks she needs for the house, she’ll still need to buy cement and other materials. To defray those costs, she has plans to continue brick making so that she can sell the bricks for a profit. She has also been able to employ young local men to help her, benefitting not only her own family, but the community as well.

Betty is a woman with lofty goals and a plan for reaching them!