Youth across Asia-Pacific to mobilize and tackle poverty housing through regional Habitat for Humanity Young Leaders Build
Annual event aims for 1,000,000 young people in 15 countries to build homes and speak out on substandard housing issues
Manila (5 December 2015) – The launch today of Habitat for Humanity Young Leaders Build in the Asia-Pacific region marks International Volunteer Day, which celebrates volunteerism. The annual Young Leaders Build is Habitat’s largest youth movement in the region. This youth-driven campaign taking place for the fifth consecutive year focuses on tackling the challenges of poverty housing.
“Many youth worldwide have developed a culture of service. It is deeply ingrained in who they are,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. “At Habitat, we see young people as our future leaders. Through their volunteer work and power to influence, young people build homes and shed light on the important need for adequate housing. Together, we help families gain strength, stability and independence through shelter. ”
The regional movement expects to rally more than one million youth, celebrities and corporate participants to volunteer, fundraise and speak out on the need for decent homes as a way out of poverty.
There is an urgent need for shelter that is safe and affordable across the Asia-Pacific region. The United Nations estimates that more than 500 million people in the Asia-Pacific live in slums, representing more than half of the world’s slum dwellers, and that globally 1.6 billion people live without adequate shelter. Habitat Young Leaders Build engages youth to show solidarity with Habitat’s cause - to draw attention to, and tackle, the issue of substandard housing.
For the first time, Habitat will also open the call for youths to submit proposals for raising awareness and advocating for steps to help eliminate poverty housing in the region. Seed funding is available to student groups, youth organizations and likeminded individuals to implement their proposals. To request for an application form, leave a comment on the HYLB Facebook group.
As part of the 2016 campaign, an online contest has been launched today to solicit designs for the official flag for Habitat Young Leaders Build and determine the best design by popular vote. For more information, visit http://www.give2habitat.org/contest/HYLB16flagdesign.
The Young Leaders Build campaign will reach its peak on 2 April 2016, when hundreds of thousands of young people will take part in simultaneous house builds across Asia-Pacific, or will go online in support of the campaign. Awareness and fundraising activities will take place in 15 countries and one Special Administrative Region (SAR), including Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
This past year’s campaign, then known as Habitat Youth Build, brought together over 669,000 volunteers and participants from 15 countries and one SAR in the Asia-Pacific region, to help over 13,000 families begin their journey to secure safe, decent homes. Volunteers worked on 9,498 houses, and raised 559,173 towards programs to alleviate poverty housing.
For more information on Habitat Young Leaders Build online – http://www.give2habitat.org/campaign/hlyb16. Join the Habitat Young Leaders Build community on Facebook here. Post with the hashtag #HabitatYLB. Follow us on Instagram.