Brick Mold Lending

Where

Nakivale, Uganda

Impact Numbers

2,000 brick molds produced
1,800+ molds lent to families and community groups
~20,000 bricks produced by one cooperative alone
40% of borrowers are women

Published on

4 February 2026

Summary

Removes the single biggest financial barrier to permanent housing by lending brick molds to families free of charge through a simple borrow-and-return system. Community groups began self-organizing into cooperatives — one group alone produced 20,000 bricks — and some borrowers started small brick-selling businesses.

The Challenge

For newly arrived families in Nakivale, building a durable brick home is the fastest path out of emergency shelter. Yet, access to one essential tool, the brick mold, is often out of reach.

Refugees must rent brick molds at high daily or monthly rates, and for families with limited and unstable income, especially single-parent households, these costs can consume a significant portion of their resources and dramatically slow down construction.

In the end, what should take weeks can stretch into months, or become financially impossible.

The Opportunity

We analyzed over 100 new arrivals and identified a clear gap we could address: removing the cost barrier to brick molds could dramatically accelerate housing construction. We also found that while it costs around 3 dollars to build a brick mold, a family can spend up to 100 dollars to rent a mold during the full construction process. Aside from representing more than 30x the product's actual cost, this amount is well above what a family could afford, given their other basic needs.

Most families have the labor, motivation, and basic materials needed to make bricks. What they lack is affordable, reliable access to molds. By shifting molds from a rental commodity to a shared community resource, families can redirect scarce funds toward food, water, and other essentials, while building faster and safer homes.

What It Is

The Brick Mold Lending Program provides free access to brick molds for new arrivals through a Shelter Depot outpost located at the Juru open-air market.

Rather than renting molds, families can borrow them for a defined period, produce the bricks they need, and return the molds for others to use, creating a system rooted in collective ownership and resource stewardship.

support Shelter Depot

Every Donation will impact our ability to fund the shelter depot efforts as well as train refugees to build and maintain their homes.

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Why It Matters

It eliminates high rental costs that disproportionately burden the most vulnerable households;
It accelerates the transition from temporary shelter to durable brick homes;
It reduces financial risk for families with irregular income;
It treats tools as shared infrastructure, not profit-generating assets;
And it strengthens trust, cooperation, and accountability within the community.

How It Works

Local Production: Brick molds are produced in partnership with the Wakati Foundation, a refugee-led organization, while simultaneously training participants in mold fabrication.
Community-Based Lending: Molds are stored and lent weekly through the Shelter Depot outpost, using a simple registration and tracking system.
Defined Loan Periods: Families borrow molds for an initial two-week period, with extensions available as needed.
Training & Support: Ongoing brick-making guidance is provided to improve quality and efficiency.
Collective Stewardship: Borrowing and return systems emphasize shared responsibility to ensure long-term program sustainability.

Results So Far

Early findings show that by removing mold rental costs, the program enables families to:

produce bricks at their own pace;
move into permanent homes sooner;
save critical income during their most vulnerable months.

During the first year of the brick mold program, we observed that refugees organized themselves into production groups to create bricks for each other. We also discovered that some entrepreneurial borrowers used our brick molds to produce bricks for sale. This not only underscores the importance of the program but also highlights the resilience and adaptability of the people involved. It shows how a simple initiative can lead to unexpected positive outcomes, such as the creation of new livelihood opportunities.