“Mum, are those fireworks?”

“No, dear. It’s the beginning of the war.”

Iryna, a new mother, found herself saying things she never expected. On an ordinary day in February, her life and her family’s life took a sudden turn. This one event forced her to make a decision that would change everything forever.

Iryna, with her mother Tetiana and infant son Sava, had to leave Odesa in Ukraine in search for safety. Her husband and her father stayed back in Ukraine to serve the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Alone and unprepared, Iryna and her mother embarked on a journey full of uncertainty.

“Today the lion of Judah has descended upon my home. He has wiped away my tears,” exclaimed Mary with her hands in the air in exaltation.

As the house kept taking shape, it was evident that the life of Mary 57-year-old mother of 3 and a grandmother to 2 children all of whom are living with disabilities would change for good.

Mary had to squeeze her big family of seven (7), in a small house with rusted corrugated iron sheets without a toilet and bathroom. The 7 include her three (3) daughters who are living with varied disabilities, and her two (2) grandchildren born of her now divorced daughter for bearing children with disabilities.

Habitat for Humanity’s Human Resource Learning and Organisation Development (HRLOD) team participated in a build that will change Mary’s life in Machakos County, Kenya. This is one of the special builds organised  to give staff hands on experience in the field as opposed to the office environment that defines their scope of work.

Bratislava (May 27, 2023)  — Habitat for Humanity International is pleased to announce a new partnership with Umdasch Group, an Austrian-based group of companies active in the construction and retail sector.

The partnership will focus on sponsorship of house constructions and support of the Carter Work Project. Employees of the Doka subsidiary, who specialize in innovative formwork and scaffolding solutions in all areas of construction, will engage in international volunteering events on construction projects in the United States.

“By supporting Habitat in the USA, we can closely dovetail our social commitment with our corporate strategy and thus achieve the greatest possible impact with our available means and resources,” said Wolfgang Litzlbauer, CEO of the Umdasch Group.

The Carter Work Project, an annual home building event organized by Habitat for Humanity and its affiliates, takes its name from the former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and the first lady, Rosalynn, who are celebrated as Habitat’ most famous volunteers. Together, from 1984 until 2019, they served as champions and strong voices for decent, affordable housing around the world, having worked alongside more than 104,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,390 homes during that time.

“We are grateful for engaged partners such as Umdasch Group, promoting innovative solutions to make construction processes more transparent and sustainable, and helping Habitat build a world where everyone has a decent place to live,” said Rick Hathaway, Habitat’s vice president for Europe and the Middle East.

About Habitat for Humanity

Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in local communities across all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand partner up with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

About Umdasch Group

The internationally successful Umdasch Group is active in more than 60 countries at over 170 locations and currently employs around 8,500 people worldwide. The family-owned company is the holding company for three operating divisions. Doka is one of the world’s leading companies for innovative formwork solutions and services in all areas of construction. In addition, the company is a global supplier of sophisticated scaffolding solutions for a wide range of applications. umdasch The Store Makers is a specialist in the design of shop interiors. Consulting and project management make the company an important partner for the retail industry, especially when it comes to innovative concepts for combining traditional stores with online retail. Umdasch Group Ventures is the technology driver and develops new, groundbreaking solutions and business models in both construction and retail.

The second session of the UN Habitat assembly took place in Nairobi Kenya from 6^th – 9^th June 2023 under the theme “a sustainable urban future through inclusive and effective multilateralism: achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in times of global crises”.

The event brought together over 6000 delegates from around the world to discuss universal access to adequate housing, Urban climate action, urban crisis recovery, localization of SDGs among other topics.

Speaking at the opening of the Assembly, Kenya’s President His Excellency Dr William Samoei Ruto noted that access to sufficient and affordable finance is a major barrier to achieving sustainable urbanization and climate action in the Global South and Africa in general. “This gathering is an opportunity for the global community to reflect on progress and new possibilities for sustainable provision of opportunities and amenities that promote the flourishing of nearly 10 billion people while enhancing the earth’s capacity to support life.” said President Ruto.

Climate change impacts and cities

The Executive Director of the UN Habitat Ms Maimunah Mohd Sharif, noted the precedence of sustainable urbanization towards achieving climate goals, Paris Agreement and aspirations to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees.

Ms Maimunah acknowledged that cities are at the centre of the impacts of extreme climate events, natural disasters, conflicts, global pandemics and economic crises: “The reality is that the impact of crisis are felt first and foremost in cities. Their secondary effects often long term in nature and are also felt in urban areas. Unfortunately, humanity over-reliance on carbon and consumption is not only killing our planet but also leaving some 3billion people without adequate housing, with 1.5 billion currently residing in poor and unhealthy housing

“The challenge before us is enormous. The only way we can achieve positive and transformative impact on the ground is through multilateral action”, she added.

Residential energy efficiency is driven by the need to address energy poverty, which affects over 40 million people across the EU, particularly the elderly and low-income households, and remains a significant barrier to achieving a more sustainable future for all.

In 2021, 6,9 % of the EU population could not keep their homes adequately warm. In 2022, this percentage rose to 8 %, corresponding to an estimated 40 million of energy poor people, according to the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC)[1]. Energy poverty can lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbate climate change, as households may resort to using fossil fuels or inefficient energy sources to meet their energy needs. Furthermore, energy poverty can also have a negative impact on people’s health, their social inclusion and economic development.

Our Community Tailored Actions for Energy Poverty Mitigation, or ComAct [2], project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, targets energy-poor people in five pilot countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, North Macedonia and Ukraine. A survey of over 1,000 people across those five countries conducted under ComAct project  in 2021 found that 37% of respondents above 60 years old spend more than 15% of their income on energy, more than 34% are unable to keep their homes warm and almost 54% are unable to keep their homes cool. These results offer an insightful glimpse into the problems and challenging conditions faced by people in multi-family apartment buildings in Central and Eastern Europe and correspond to the findings of the EU-SILC survey, which also shows how energy poverty disproportionately affects low-income households. Over 34% of households in the lowest income quintile reported that they cannot afford to keep their homes warm, compared to 3,4% of households in the highest income quintile with over 42% of households citing high energy cost as the main reason. Moreover, the survey revealed that the prevalence of energy poverty varies greatly depending on the type of dwelling. People living in buildings with poor thermal insulation and inefficient heating systems were more likely to experience energy poverty than those living in energy efficient buildings. All of these findings highlight the importance of efforts and interventions that promote energy efficiency to reduce energy poverty, which is a significant barrier to sustainability.

The importance of energy efficiency is well recognized by the EU, which placed the EU-wide energy poverty definition into the new Energy Efficiency Directive for the first time, showing that energy efficient interventions are the way to reduce energy poverty and signalling the need for addressing it.

The European Union has set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions with the ultimate aim of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. More specifically, as part of the EU’s overall goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, it aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% and increase the share of renewable energy in the EU’s energy mix to at least 32% by 2030.

Since buildings are responsible for a significant amount of energy consumption in the EU, accounting for 40% of the EU’s final energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the energy performance of new buildings, improving energy efficiency of existing buildings and decreasing household’s energy poverty is, therefore, essential to achieving the EU’s climate and energy objectives.

[1] prediction based on the information from a presentation from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy (April, 2023)

[2] The ComAct project, coordinated by Habitat for Humanity, Europe and the Middle East area office, aims to make impactful energy-efficient improvements in multi-family apartment buildings affordable and manageable for energy-poor communities as well as to create the necessary assistance conditions for lifting them out of energy poverty. The project includes ten partners: MRI, IWO, LCA, ENEFFECT, BURGAS, OHU, Habitat for Humanity Macedonia, ENOVA, Habitat for Humanity Europe and the Middle East.

Nada welcomes us with a smile on a cold April morning in her small house located in the narrow streets of Shuto Orizari, the only Roma municipality in Europe.

“We are no longer afraid of the cold. Our children are sleeping in a warm and dry place for the first time in their lives.

“We are grateful that Habitat turned our little house into a warm home, that you helped us legalize it and be our own,” shares Nada, currently unemployed.

She is the mother of a twelve-year-old girl, who goes to a local primary school, and an eight-year-old boy, who has to stay home due to his health condition and frequent hospital treatments.

“My husband, our two children and I, we all used to live in about twenty square meters: one room without insulation, with a cold concrete floor, and an unfinished bathroom. It was difficult for me to maintain hygiene, it was impossible to clean, I washed the dishes at the tap outside. It was cold.

“My son’s health condition requires constant care, daily inhalations, hygiene and warmth. Being part of Habitat Macedonia’s project, at first for the legalization of our home, and then for its refurbishment, gave us hope that we can raise our children in decent conditions.

“I can see the children’s health improving, hygiene is now as it should be, we have an adequate toilet and kitchen, and a space to sleep peacefully.”

Before the intervention, their small house had bare walls, no flooring, no plumbing in the kitchen and an unfinished toilet. Thanks to the renovation works, their living conditions have improved, and they can now enjoy a healthy home.

Hers is one of the 12 substandard homes undergoing refurbishment within the project ‘Sustainable Urban Development of Roma Communities’. A joint initiative of Habitat for Humanity Macedonia and the municipalities of Shuto Orizari and Veles, financed by the European Union.

Nada’s family shares the same problems as 60-70% of the estimated 50,000 Roma living in Macedonia – often recipients of social assistance. Lacking a stable income, they often live in substandard, illegal housing, without access to proper sanitation.

Over half of Roma families experience housing deprivation across the European Union, according to the EU Roma Survey from 20221. More than 70% of young Roma still leave school early, and Roma continue to have a much lower life expectancy than the general population.

Habitat Macedonia has been working for almost two decades on improving the housing conditions of the Roma population through various programs.

We focus our efforts on empowered participation, secure tenure, access to reliable and sustainable basic services as well as the eradication of energy poverty. On International Romani Day, let us remember that urbanization and improvement of living conditions is the basis for the social inclusion of Roma in the community, enrolment in education and improved health.

Enida, 30, was born just before the outbreak of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She grew up in a one-room household on a hilltop of Baščaršija, one of the oldest neighborhoods of Sarajevo, with her brother and parents. For 23 years, the family occupied a 25 square meter space with one window and no dedicated bathroom nor kitchen. In 2017, the family gained rights to a small plot of land and slowly started building a home.