Four years ago, Lenuta Moga sat in the single room she shared with her family and told me what having a Habitat house would mean to her. She remembered the three dreams she clung to growing up in a Romanian orphanage: to be married, to have a good husband and to have a home of her own. Today, thankfully, she has all three.
Her story and the stories of 100,000 other homeowners like her are the result of another dream born 25 years ago. Meeting in a chicken barn at Koinonia Farm in Georgia, Habitat for Humanity founder and president Millard Fuller, along with his wife, Linda, and a small group of friends dreamed big back in 1976. Their vision of building 100,000 simple, decent houses with people in need has been fulfilled. Now a new dream takes its place: that of building the second 100,000 houses by the end of 2005. It is only through local initiative—Habitat’s guiding principle—that these dreams can be realized.
“Habitat is a movement,” says Fuller. “…Every time a partner family moves in, they pass it on…if all of us keep passing it on, it’s amazing what will happen in the next few years.
“We’ve gone from building one house [25 years ago], to building a house every 26 minutes,” he says. Growth of the organization has been exponential: from a handful of U.S. affiliates to some 2,000 worldwide; from a few countries to 79; from a smattering of houses to more than 100,000. And, Habitat World has grown as well, from a few thousand readers in 1984 to nearly 2 million today.
The magazine you hold in your hands reflects that growth. It is still your old friend, now delivered in a new magazine-style format that is easier to read, display and share with others.
Be assured that with this new look, Habitat World’s staff is dedicated to stewardship. Through effective utilization of production, printing, paper, postal and delivery techniques, we will produce this new look for about the same cost as the old format. Like you, we are dedicated to building houses that meet real needs.
Thanks for reading…and for building.
—Milana McLead is the editor of Habitat World.
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