The Publication of Habitat for Humanity International | December 2006
| The Publication of Habitat for Humanity International | December 2006 |
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As a teenager, Lata, now 34, was hit by a truck as she carried a jug of water across the road to her home. Her leg had to be amputated, and her marriage prospects evaporated. "I cried and cried," Lata's mother, Phulabai, said. "And when I tried to get her engaged, I couldn't. My daughter was only educated to the fifth standard; she couldn't keep on in school after the injury. She's not educated, but she is very creative." Lata needed all the creativity she could muster. Though welcome in her parents' home, the house would ultimately belong not to her, but to her two brothers. Already, it was crowded with Lata, her parents, her brothers, her sister-in-law and nephew. Her younger brother planned to marry within a few years and bring his bride to live with them, and her father was getting older, retiring from the railroad this year. Lata worried about becoming a burden. She needed a way to live on her own--no easy task for a single woman with a physical disability. Like Lata, millions of Indians live one accident, one illness or one bad growing season away from a life of desperation. "India is a rich country with lots of poor people," says Mahesh Lobo, a Habitat for Humanity regional program adviser based in Bangalore. "Most of the poor in India do not have access to the basic resources they need to make a decent living. ... For many poor families, a square a meal a day is a distant reality." The dichotomy is striking: In a country with widespread urban broadband access, 48 percent of rural households still burn kerosene for light. An estimated 350 million to 400 million people live below the poverty line, and three-quarters of those live in rural areas. This is not to say that poverty reduction programs are not working; on the contrary, the current estimate of the poverty level of 25 percent, based on 2002 numbers, is down from 36 percent in the 1990s. But even 25 percent of 1.1 billion people still leaves many, many poor.
Looking Ahead For Habitat for Humanity India, partnerships--with self-help groups, as well as corporations, individuals, civic groups, nongovernmental organizations and community governments--are the keystone of an ambitious drive to raise the profile of housing issues nationwide. Launched in October 2005, indiaBUILDS is a campaign to provide better housing for 250,000 low-income Indians over the next five years and to inspire others to champion innovative solutions for the estimated 315 million Indians who lack a decent place to call home. The goals are audacious: to house 50,000 families by 2010; to mobilize 1 million volunteers from India and around the world; and to raise US$100 million to build affordable housing in India, with $65 million to come from donors and $35 million through homeowner savings. Each year, indiaBUILDS will feature a headline event designed to focus attention on poverty housing. This year's event was the annual Jimmy Carter Work Project in late October and early November. Thousands of volunteers from India and around the world gathered at Lonavala, Maharashtra, to build houses with local families in need. At the end of the week, not only had 100 more families built safe, decent housing, but also new attention was directed to the housing needs of millions more. Citigroup, a key partner in the indiaBUILDS effort and a JCWP sponsor, has recognized that whether a family lives in India or Indiana, housing is a foundation for building financial security. Citigroup and the Aditya Birla Group have been instrumental in forming an advisory committee of Indian business and industrial leaders to support the JCWP and indiaBUILDS campaign. "We have been able to deepen our relationship with Habitat, which is part of our community-building strategy to revitalize communities and help build assets for low-income people, and we all know that owning a home is probably the most important asset a family can have," says Natalie Abatemarco, a representative of Citigroup. "Citigroup has been able to go way beyond philanthropy through its partnership with Habitat." Dow, a Habitat Cornerstone partner, has the distinction of being the longest corporate partner of Habitat for Humanity International. Dow is perhaps best known to Habitat supporters in the United States as a major donor of foam insulation, but it is also a major cash donor each year for house sponsorships for global home building. Dow has also supported Habitat's tsunami, Operation Home Delivery and JCWP programs, as well as other emergency relief efforts. Joining Dow at the Gold level in JCWP sponsorships is Vedanta Resources, an Indian mining company. Whirlpool, another of Habitat's Cornerstone partners, and POSCO, a Korean steel company, have contributed funds at the Silver level to the JCWP and indiaBUILDS efforts. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans also has contributed funds that both jump-start local contributions and purchase essential materials and services. The spirit of cooperation behind partnerships such as these is the same spirit that has prompted Habitat to act as a matchmaker between people with construction knowledge and families in need. "India is such a vast land in size, population and culture," says Rick Hathaway, director of regional programs for Habitat's Asia/Pacific office in Bangkok, Thailand. "Regional differences are significant--language, culture, resource opportunities, need. The Habitat Resource Center model provides an opportunity to tailor Habitat resources to fit the local situation in that specific region. The HRCs, though, are a national network such that experiences and talent can be shared across regions. "The structure evolved out of a question: 'How can HFH India best impact 250,000 people with appropriate shelter solutions in the next five years and develop the appropriate resources of people and funding in India to achieve this level of scale?' Central to this structure is a recognition of the skills and competencies of others working in the development field, as well as the ability HFH has to mobilize financial resources and local talent. The result is a higher quality and more efficient shelter delivery system." Mending Holes in the Safety Net To strengthen their precarious grip on health and income, millions of rural Indians--mostly women--have formed self-help groups. At its most basic, a self-help group is a savings group in which 15 to 20 individuals each make a small monthly contribution of 50 or 100 rupees (US$1 or $2). The money is used to make low-interest loans within the group, with excess funds placed on deposit in a bank. Self-help groups have become ubiquitous in the Indian hinterlands; a 2005 BBC article cited 8 million women working in 800,000 self-help groups in the state of Andhra Pradesh alone. The groups are proving to be natural partners with Habitat for Humanity. By working with existing community development agencies, Habitat can play a role in a more comprehensive, holistic safety net than it could form alone. "Only those who have a piece of land can benefit from Habitat's housing program," says Habitat's Lobo. "Those who do not have land or those who are at the lowest end of the ladder are unable to take any benefit from Habitat's program. ... Partnering with other development agencies which have an integrated development approach and who have been working with communities in mobilizing them towards better living conditions through education, microfinance and entrepreneurship skills, Habitat can look for holistic development, as most of these organizations do not take up housing as part of their integrated development approach." The idea works on the concept that the contributions of many, even if small, add up to make a difference--a concept familiar to Habitat supporters through the Save & Build and Save & Repair programs widespread throughout India and the Asia/Pacific region. In these programs, 10 to 12 families form a savings group specifically for housing, and Habitat supplements the villagers' savings with small, manageable loans to enable the group to build a few houses at a time. The groups elect their own leaders and decide in which order families are housed. The Save & Repair model fits well with the common practice of incremental homebuilding but improves it by giving homeowners access to high-quality, low-cost building materials, as well as assistance with design and construction. Their loans are even smaller and targeted at families living on as little as US$1 a day for specific home improvements, such as adding a bathroom. By adding Habitat's housing focus to the community groups' existing services, sustainable transformation is possible. For example, Habitat homeowner Surekha Balkrishna Shetage runs a government-sponsored kindergarten and health care program for children and expectant mothers. Her self-help group recently started cooking and serving two meals a day at the kindergarten. The government furnishes the ingredients and pays the group 18 paise for each child served. (There are 100 paise to the rupee, and 45 rupees to the U.S. dollar.) Meals are delivered to the home when a child is absent. Over time, the benefits unfold in two directions: The group earns extra income, and the children become better nourished. A Small Victory Habitat leaders in India haven't lost sight of the need for big, ambitious national plans to translate into better lives for individuals like Lata. In August 2006, Lata was selected to become a Habitat homeowner in the community built during the Jimmy Carter Work Project. With a sewing machine she received a few years after her accident, she sews dresses and blouses, work that provides enough money to pay back her mortgage and earn a modest living. For five years, Lata has been a member of a self-help group; she contributes 50 rupees a month and can take loans. This gives her confidence in her ability to make a monthly payment and handle household expenses. Without a family of her own to care for her when she grows old, her future is still uncertain. But today, there is hope. "I have saved for these five years, and I can pay," she says. "I have made in my heart that I will stay alone happily." |
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