Habitat World editor Milana McLead led a team of women to New Zealand in September for two weeks of building.

A Place for Everyone

"When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed."
--Mother Teresa

'I give thanks to God for his love and to Habitat for making the right decision in picking me," says soon-to-be Habitat homeowner Fuapepe Tapelu. "I think they chose the right person!" Her broad smile lights up the dim construction warehouse where we are celebrating the completion of her house in Manakau, New Zealand.

If I needed it, her smile and spirit provided validation for all the sweat and struggle it took to build her house. This was my fourth year of volunteering to lead a group of women to do a Habitat build somewhere in the world. It was the first time my team had the opportunity to build an entire house from the floor up. We built the house in two weeks, with help from numerous local female volunteers and Alan Pfeiffer, a very patient construction supervisor.

We built it all, with "Pepe" and her children working alongside us the entire time. Pepe came to New Zealand a few years ago from Samoa with her husband and their four children. Sadly, her husband died of cancer soon after their move, and she struggled to make her own way in a foreign land. All she could manage on a preschool teacher's salary was to rent a tiny house for NZ$1,000 per month (US$600). After exhausting other avenues to homeownership, she prayed for help.

With overcrowding and insecure tenure as primary housing issues in New Zealand, HFH Manakau is one of 20 affiliates working to provide housing solutions. Pepe's house would be the affiliate's 33rd house, and one for which the affiliate had scores of applications. Pepe and her family held fast through the rigorous selection process, persevering when she was shortlisted as one among 20 applicants, then one among seven, and then simply one.

It's a process that is played out with Habitat affiliates worldwide every day. Before there are Habitat houses, there are families in need and willing volunteers who help identify them. Before there are Habitat families, there are passionate people who advocate and fund raise or who help find land or design houses.

Building a Habitat house involves more than picking up a hammer at a construction site. There's a place for everyone. There's a place for you.

Thanks for reading ... and for building.

--Milana McLead