Habitat World Online

Simple. Decent. Secure.

•

Poland

•

Brazil

•

Mozambique

•

Sri Lanka

•

United States

New Name, Same Spirit

•

From the Gulf Coast to the Mekong River

•

Building Momentum

•

Precious Mettle

All in a Day's Work

HabitAtlas

Notes from the
Field

Coming Home

Foundations

Support

Area Offices

Archive Issues

Habitat’s regional books outline scope of poverty housing

by Rebekah Daniel

Fast Facts from “A Right to a Decent Home: Mapping poverty housing in the Africa & Middle East region”

• Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban growth rate of 4.6 percent per year is the highest in the world. (UN Human Settlements Programme)

• The 2006 Human Development Report estimates that providing universal access to “even the most basic water and sanitation facilities” would reduce health costs alone in sub-Saharan Africa by $610 million annually. (UN Development Programme)

• As of the end of 2006, Jordan hosted 500,000 refugees, more than 10 percent of the country’s total population. (UN High Commissioner for Refugees)

With the 2008 publication of an Africa and Middle East edition, Habitat for Humanity has completed a series of research-oriented reports of poverty’s impact around the world.

The information in the reports draws from a broad survey of secondary research relating to poverty’s scope, impact and causes, as well as techniques employed by Habitat and other organizations to improve living conditions.

“In Habitat for Humanity, we know the connection between housing and health, housing and education, housing and a positive self-image that results in a family breaking the cycle of poverty for their children,” says Steve Little, area communications director for the Latin America/Caribbean region. “We know there’s a connection because we’ve seen it. But despite that strong connection, there has been surprisingly little research conducted documenting the relationship.

“As a housing movement, we need to demonstrate to the world what we know to be true: By fulfilling a family’s right to a decent place to live, we create the conditions that lift that family out of poverty and provide individuals with the resources they need to become all that God intends them to be.”

The idea for the series was born of a desire to increase the effectiveness of advocacy efforts in the Latin American and Caribbean region almost five years ago, says Jennifer Duncan, a consultant who worked on the project. “We came up with the idea of a background/policy paper on the causes and conditions of poverty housing in LA/C as a way to give Habitat a sense of the bigger picture in which it was acting, to raise issues that might provide leverage for future advocacy work and to provide a survey of other actors involved in confronting poverty housing,” she says.

Shortly after the first report was published in 2004, a report about poverty and housing in Europe/Central Asia was completed, followed by the Asia/Pacific and Africa/Middle East region. The Europe and Africa reports also contain a country-specific appendix of detailed housing information.

To read these reports, visit www.habitat.org/how/why/intl_stats_research.aspx.

National Women Build Week 2008 draws new volunteers.

by Phillip Jordan

When Pennsylvania’s Habitat for Humanity of Cambria County decided to do its first Women Build project, the affiliate’s construction supervisor figured it might take three days for the new volunteers to install wall studs, floor joists and flooring. The women of Cambria County finished everything on that list by noon on day one.

The Pennsylvania crew joined more than 150 affiliates participating in National Women Build Week, May 4-10, an event originated and sponsored by Lowe’s, underwriter of Habitat’s Women Build program. Celebrating the compassion, dedication, talents and abilities of women from all walks of life, the event helped affiliates recruit women volunteers to increase building capacity.

“We had 21 women on the site during our day’s build,” says Susan Stewart, family support chair for Habitat Cambria County. “And we now have 128 women volunteers on our roster. This has turned a lot of women on to Habitat, and not just for the building. There are women getting involved in our publicity and fund-raising efforts, too.”

The scope and visibility of the weeklong event — which included affiliates from all 50 states and celebrities on many of the build sites — brought significant media exposure to the Women Build program. During a First Families build held during National Women Build Week in Paterson, N.J., Habitat for Humanity welcomed Patti Scialfa, the singer-songwriter wife of Bruce Springsteen, to its work site. Across the nation, female politicians, media members and prominent businesswomen joined in as well.

To read more National Women Build Week stories from across the United States, click on the “Newsroom” link at www.habitat.org/wb.

Phillip Jordan is a writer/editor for Habitat for Humanity International.

Home Builders Blitz 2008, held across the United States from May 31 to June 7, partnered with more than 1,000 professionals in the home-building industry and more than 100 Habitat for Humanity affiliates to build 263 homes in just one week. Home Builders Blitz began as a local event in Raleigh, N.C., in 2002 and was so successful that Habitat for Humanity International decided to promote it as a nationwide event, first held in 2006. Since the inception of Home Builders Blitz, the professional home-building industry has assisted Habitat’s mission by building more than 750 homes.