New Habitat homeowner Maria Maldonado of Caldera, Chile, says Habitat helps "people construct their lives."

Bright Ideas Help Build More Houses (continued)

Silent Auction Yields Needed Funds
Many, many miles south, well below the equator, in the thin country that hems in South America's west coast, Habitat for Humanity Chile's fledgling efforts have yielded nearly 20 houses in just one year. It's an accomplishment made possible by numerous supportive partnerships. One such partnership with the Marriott Hotel and others launched the organization's second annual "Hope Builders" dinner and silent auction in Santiago.

Some 230 people attended, several companies sponsored tables, and the silent auction raised nearly $8,000--enough to cover the cost of more than one Habitat house in Chile.

The auction featured donated items, such as jewelry, airline tickets, Chilean wine, restaurant and hotel vouchers, and more. The most unusual auctioned item was a sculpture of a bull, while a Copa Airlines round-trip ticket from Santiago to Panama raised the most money (US$992).

Homeowner Maria Maldonado, one of the five most recent beneficiaries of a Habitat house in the tiny fishing village of Caldera, provided the evening's highlight by sharing how Habitat impacted her life:

"Habitat for Humanity not only builds houses, but also helps people to construct their lives, to grow as people, to feel important, to discover that we are capable of achieving our goals with love and support," she said. "I therefore invite you to support this project so that, together, we can construct more adequate homes for those who need them most."

It's that thinking that has motivated HFH Chile to make its next bold goals: 48 more houses and three new affiliates by June 2004.

Where Will You Sleep Tonight?
For 17 hours in October, some 130 people in Singapore voluntarily chose to live in cardboard shacks of their own making. And for at least nine hours, rain tested not only their resolve but also the security of their handmade shacks.

It was all part of Habitat Singapore's inaugural "Under No Roof" event, which gave people the opportunity to experience homelessness and poverty first hand, something that more than a billion people around the world face daily.

Like many others, Under No Roof participant Serene Foo got the message. "I will always remember this opportunity I had to experience homelessness, though only for a night," she says. "This has helped greatly in raising awareness of the fortunate lives that we as Singaporeans live, and also of the [unfortunate lives] of the poor around the world. Thank you for further increasing my desire to help the less fortunate locally and overseas."

Habitat Singapore provided cardboard and scrap materials with which participants could build their "cardboard city." After construction and presentations, the group settled down for the night in their makeshift shelters. And then the rains came.

National coordinator Hosea Lai cites that as a highlight: "The real test came when it actually drizzled throughout the night," he says. "Some homes stood firm, some leaked, while others collapsed under the weight of the rain."

Lai says that participants came away with the knowledge that it's no fun to be poor. His goal: that at least half of the participants would make a resolution to do something about what they felt and learned.

"That was the aim of Under No Roof--to raise awareness about what it's like to have a leaky roof over our heads, or worse, no roof at all," he says. "It's something we take for granted in Singapore because homelessness is not really an issue, but that's not to say that it doesn't exist."