“Our shared work”
By Liliana Kania, Dow employee and Habitat for Humanity volunteer
I’m a chemical engineer at Dow in Warsaw, Poland. My passions are plants and pipelines, but I see how chemistry benefits people’s lives, connecting them to each other and improving living conditions all around the world. Habitat does the same thing. And over the past 31 years, Dow and Habitat have partnered together to help more families live in decent, affordable housing.
Recently, I joined 11 of my Dow colleagues, as we volunteered with Habitat Poland to help work on the Monar Rehabilitation Center in Wyszków. The center provides treatment, care and rehabilitation for people with addictions.
The renovation to the center is an important social project for the area. With the support of Habitat and Dow, Monar has refurbished an office building as its new crisis intervention center. Monar rehabilitation clients and people escaping domestic violence will now have a safe place to go as they begin new lives.
At the build, we asked for a job that would really make a difference. They assigned us a room to completely refurbish, handed us hammers, and away we went. We removed old tiles from the walls and floor, scraped paint, threw away trash, etc. It was tough work! But we were extremely proud that we did something for people who need a hand up.
We found it very moving to work side-by-side with the people who would be using the facility. It was great to talk and get to know them as we all worked together. Later, our Habitat leader told us that our shared work was an important part of their therapy. We realized that people benefit in many — and sometimes unexpected — ways from Habitat’s efforts.
I am proud to work for a company that connects our work with our passion to help others. I appreciate how we help Habitat by contributing funds, donating products and encouraging employees to get involved.
Habitat needs all types of support to bring projects — and partner families’ dreams — to life. We have already started talking with Habitat Poland about our next project. I look forward to volunteering on future Habitat builds.