Many African families live in unstable mud-brick houses like this child in Angola.

(International Rural Poverty Housing continued)

Still, families like Ibrahim's survive, striving to improve their lot--and many are finding a shining ray of hope in humanitarian organizations like Habitat for Humanity.

"Simple, decent shelter makes life easier no matter where it is," says Smeeding. And that's what Habitat for Humanity provides--in direct partnership with those who need it.

"Adequate housing better equips families to tackle other needs in their lives, such as health care and education--things that work together, with housing as a foundation, to improve a person's quality of life," says Mike Carscaddon, executive vice president for Habitat's international division.

And it's this holistic approach to community development that Habitat seeks to widen, Carscaddon says.

"We want to play a part in the Millennium Development Goals," he says, "so we've begun to ask ourselves, 'How can we use resources in terms of advocacy? ...To advocate on behalf of families in need?' We recognize that this kind of community development is the way to go, so we're reaching out more to other organizations, even though Habitat's focus will always be housing."

To that end, Habitat for Humanity has begun exploring a possible role in the "One Campaign," which is a new effort by a coalition of faith-based and anti-poverty organizers to fight the crises of global AIDS and extreme poverty in the world.

Habitat also has become a full member of InterAction, an alliance of U.S.-based international development and humanitarian organizations working "to overcome poverty, exclusion and suffering by advancing social justice and basic dignity for all."

Meanwhile, Habitat for Humanity intensifies its work in 100 countries around the world. Through certain innovations such as Save & Build, whereby groups of about a dozen families save pennies a day to help one another build a house, Habitat is reaching ever-lower-income families. And, often staff and volunteers test and grow these programs in rural areas first.

As Habitat seeks and develops its capacity to build, more and more homeowner partner families will find added stability in their new house, a welcomed permanence within stronger walls.

Did you know that per capita spending on rural public services is about half that of urban areas? (Source: World Bank)

According to a 2005 Habitat for Humanity report, shelter is critical in rural areas for reasons beyond providing a place to live. It contributes to improved health, it creates an asset base for the poor--which is of particular importance when owning few resources--and it provides a space to work and generate income.

However, beyond the tangibles of what housing components can bring is one ingredient that is core to a solid quality of life, one that cannot be measured with a doctor's tool or gauged by a classroom exam: dignity. So many poor families around the world strive to preserve their dignity, clinging to that in spite of a want for learning, or perhaps even for more food on the table. The role decent housing plays in that cannot be overstated.

Mr. Ibrahim and his wife shared their one-room house with a cow, as they could hardly leave the animal outside, lest something happen to it, thus jeopardizing their livelihood. Through a partnership with Habitat for Humanity Egypt, however, he built a second room for US $224--and provided separate quarters for the cow and a cleaner, decent room for him and his wife. And this is not to mention adding an indoor latrine.

"Habitat did a lot," he says, referring to his house and the Al-Kom Al-Akdar community in general. "They made it sweet like honey, and made it beautiful rather than how it used to be: very, very bad."

Hany Raouf, field coordinator for HFH Egypt, says the emergence of better housing in the community reaches beyond beautifying a physical structure here or there. "It has created a strong cultural atmosphere where good housing is desired, sought and gotten by all."