Habitat for Humanity Ireland partners with a number of secondary schools each year to send teams of students overseas through our Global Village programme. This experience opens the minds of students to global issues and offers them practical volunteering experience. The students attend development education workshops, team building sessions and fundraise in advance of the trip.

After the trip, students leverage their experiences by becoming “voices” for affordable housing and housing problems across the world.

Teams from Gonzaga College SJ in Dublin have been travelling to Zambia with HFH Ireland since 2006. Last month, this year’s team travelled to Twapia, a small village the Copperbelt province.

We asked some of the students why they wanted to go on Habitat’s School Programme:

Donal Gunning – “I had an interest for a few years as I always watched the 5^th years in school leave for Zambia. My friends who went on the trip on previous years spoke very highly of it, learned a lot and  it changed their attitude to things in life.”

Patrick Finlay – “When I heard about the trip I thought it would be a great experience as I really wanted to see Zambia for myself and try to understand what it was really like over there.”

Matthew McGrogan – “I wanted to see more of the world and experience new cultures and if I could improve the lives of people while there it would be wonderful.”

Ciaran Sweeney – “I had heard from past trips that it is a very memorable and fulfilling experience and was always a trip that I had wanted to do.”

The impact of volunteering for these students is remarkable. Read about how their experience influenced their life choices and general outlook:

Patrick Finlay – “My idea of what living in Africa is like has changed dramatically. While conditions can be terrible, the shear positivity of the people around lifts the whole place. I no longer think of Zambia as needing help, but more as partners in development.”

Sam Grennan – “It made me more carefree. If people who have so little can be so positive, why can’t I? It also made me appreciate the important things in life, such as the relationships you build with people.”

Matthew McGrogan – “It definitely makes you appreciate the things you have a lot of and question your right to so much, when others have so little. I want to travel more now and see more of the world.”

Conor Tiernan – “I think it would make me more considerate about the wider world community and would be something I would like to continue to do in my life.”

Read about their favourite memories while volunteering with Habitat for Humanity:

Mark Hutchinson – “My favourite memory is when we put the last bit of the roof on the house we were building and the look of joy on the owners face as it finally looked like somewhere you could live.”

Andrew Cloonas – “My favourite memory was seeing about 100 kids on the first day jumping up and down, singing Gonzaga songs on a hill before the football match and the handing over ceremony, seeing the faces of the family receiving the keys.”

Cian Flynn – “The sheer delight and gratefulness of the locals at the handing over ceremony. I don’t think I totally appreciated until then how much this meant to the whole village.”

Sam Grennan – “The people we met, their general happiness and care free attitude amazed me from the builders down to the kids. I love the way Habitat let us live in the community, as without this, I do not think the experience would be the same.”

Ciaran Sweaney – “I loved finishing off the home, applying the last bricks after the roof was put on because it showed just how much progress we’d made.”

Conor Tiernan – “My favourite memory was handing the keys over. I really felt that we made a difference to the homeowner’s life.”

Today is the International Day of Families which provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.

This year’s theme is “ensuring work family balance” as millions of people around the world lack decent working conditions and the social support to care for their families.

” The aim (of today) is to help workers everywhere provide for their families financially and emotionally, while also contributing to the socio-economic development of their societies,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

At Habitat for Humanity, we put the family at the core of our work.

Our holistic approach has led us to create designs and to partner with other organisations to help create healthy living environments. Each new house brings greater opportunities for families to lead safe, healthy and productive lives.

At Habitat, we view housing as offering much more than a home. It can increase economic opportunities, alleviate poverty and hunger and make a long term difference to people’s lives. Habitat also offers programmes which give homeowners an opportunity to create a regular income by providing microfinance loans to families who want to start a business from home. Habitat also provides food gardens, which promote self-sufficiency amongst our homeowners and offer them a chance to make a regular income. Food gardens provide resources needed to grow their own food and also to produce food which can be sold for profit.

Housing acts as a major stimulant for generating employment, output, and income. Habitat programmes make it more viable financially for families to support their children through their education instead of requiring them to contribute to the economic sustainability of the household.

Habitat is working to empower women across the globe by offering legal literacy education. Our Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programme, which seeks to raise awareness of the needs and rights of women and orphaned children, give women information about their rights, especially on land ownership and inheritance, and empowers them to assert these rights.

In addition to this, all Habitat projects provide access to improved sanitation and access to safe drinking water.

In this way, we celebrate the International Day of Families by highlighting some of the inspirational families we work with.

Fiona Corcoran and Family- Ireland

Homeownership “will give us the space we need, allow us to have a better standard of living and the security of owning your own home,” Fiona says.

Fiona Corcoran and her daughters Ellie and Sarah outside their Habitat home. (c) Habitat for Humanity, Dylan Vaughan

The Tique Family Mozambique

“I’m so happy that the children are living in a good place now. When it was finished, I couldn’t stop crying with joy,” said their aunt Theresa.

The Tique family outside their new Habitat home in Zambia. (c) Habitat for Humanity International

Marie Léa Fredlin’s Story – Haiti

“My husband and I are trying to start a business because our children are going to school and we have to take care of the newborn. Receiving this house is unbelievable because I didn’t know where we would find money to build a new one,” says Marie Léa.

Marie Lea Fredlin in front of her Habitat upgradable shelter. (c) Habitat for Humanity International

Tibakombole Ngulube - Zambia

Tibakombole is 56 years old. She looks after her three orphaned grandchildren Matthew (10), Vicky (7) and Lucy (6). Tibakombole and her family now live in a new Habitat home, which offers them safe and decent conditions.

Tibakombole Ngulube celebrating outside her home. (c) Habitat for Humanity International

This week we celebrate Ireland’s first annual National Volunteer Week. Following five successful National Day of Volunteering campaigns, this year the campaign is being extended to seven days, making it easier for all to get involved.

At Habitat for Humanity Ireland we are always seeking volunteers to help us to increase access to decent and affordable shelter in Ireland and abroad. Our volunteer engagement opportunities enable people from all ages, backgrounds and skill levels to learn about the global need for decent, affordable housing and to engage in Habitat’s partnership solution.

We see transformation occurring not only in the lives of those who live in the homes, but in the hearts of those who help build them. By connecting volunteers and homeowners in a housing solution that works, we seek to create engaged leaders with a long term commitment to change.

On build sites around the world our volunteers engage in a life changing experience. When they return to their daily lives, we ask that they leverage this experience by asking their family and friends to join them, by contacting their local media about their experience and writing to their elected representatives about the need for sustainable housing and land tenure policies.

At Habitat we are seeking to create a global movement of volunteers who are passionate about affordable housing and who are “voices” for sustainable housing and land tenure policies. Will you join us?

Habitat for Humanity’s Youth Build will begin tomorrow in the Asia-Pacific region. It will take place in five countries simultaneously helping more than 500 hundred families in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand in just one day. Around 4,000 young Habitat for Humanity volunteers will help build, in an effort to raise awareness of the dire housing situation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The multi-country build event will help people affected by recent natural disasters in the region. In Thailand, volunteers will build a community centre for families affected by the severe flooding last year, which will serve as an evacuation centre during disasters. In the Philippines, 200 homes will be built for families who lost their houses after Typhoon Nesat and severe tropical Storm Washi.

One family that will help build their new home is the Edrote family in the Philippines. “We are very excited to know we will have a new house soon,” said Peter Edrote, 31, married to Nelinda, 36, and father to two young girls. “We have lived in a tent for over four months now and it feels good to know that we will soon have a house.”

Social media has played an enormous part in raising awareness for the build. Tens of thousands of young people have used their social and digital networks to encourage people to donate and more than 1 million people have been reached with the campaigns message.

“We are overwhelmed by the great online response to the Habitat Youth Build campaign. Asia’s youth have really taken the cause of tackling substandard housing to heart and run with it,” said Rick Hathaway, Asia-Pacific Vice President for Habitat for Humanity International.

Habitat Youth Build will start tomorrow the 12 May 2012 and will be taking place in:

• Shuiweidong, Conghua district, Guangdong province, China
• Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, India
• Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Manado, Indonesia
• Barangay Tanza, Navotas, and Calaanan, Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
• Bang Ban, Ayutthaya, Thailand

Malaria kills a child every 45 seconds. It claims three times as many lives among children as HIV/AIDS and accounts for one fifth of child mortality worldwide. Sub Saharan Africa is the worst affected area in the world and continues to account for 80 percent of malaria cases on a global basis.

It is easy to correlate the impact of poor housing with those who contract malaria. Huts with open windows or leaky roofs harbour insects that expose occupants to malaria and other diseases.  Construction of adequate housing can seriously reduce the risk of contracting malaria.

The Millennium Development Goals aims to combat HIV/AIDs, Malaria and other diseases, by distributing mosquito nets, outlined in target 6.C. In 2005, fewer than 10 percent of the population in the most heavily affected countries around the world had access to insecticide- treated bed nets. There has been a concerted effort to distribute mosquito nets to these people, 140 million nets where distributed in the past three years alone. The World Health Organisation stated that the distribution of mosquito nets has decreased mortality from malaria by as much as 20 percent.

Read about Aya Koffi and how she partnered with Habitat for Humanity to improve her and her family’s living and health conditions to combat malaria.

Cote d’Ivoire: Winning the battle against malaria Aya Koffi’s four children had often been sick with malaria. But when Veronique, her oldest, developed cerebral malaria, a serious form of the illness, Koffi knew that her daughter could die in a matter of days. The mosquito-borne illness had already killed Koffi’s two brothers. Luckily, Veronique got medical treatment and survived.

Aya Koffi and two of her children show off the mosquito nets in their new Habitat home. (c)Habitat for Humanity Jean-Jacques Yao

Since her husband was killed in a rebel attack during the war that raged in Cote d’Ivoire in 2002, Koffi and her children had been living in a one-room house that belonged to her husband’s uncle in the village of Tougbokro. The family shared a toilet with three other families—20 people—and the toilet’s drainage system in front of the house was a breeding ground for malaria-bearing mosquitoes and other insects.

“More than 20 children die every year in the village,” said Tougbokro’s village chief, Nanan N’dri Affian. “Who will be the next one? I, too, have lost three children this way. Better living conditions help us to tackle this problem.”

After the uncle asked the family to leave his house because he wanted to give it to his children, Koffi was able to improve her living conditions by partnering with Habitat for Humanity and building a new brick house for her family in April 2009. The beds have mosquito nets, and the family has a bathroom with a good drainage system.

Her two sons and two daughters not only are able to attend school regularly because they are healthy, they also no longer fear getting sick, their mother said. “Today I have a safe and decent place to live with my children,” she said. “They will not be afraid of rain and malaria as we used to be. I am happy and proud.”

Last week our blog focused on what ‘Poverty housing’ is. This week we start a series of blogs looking at some of the different ways Habitat works with families and communities around the world to address it. Today we start with micro-finance.

Habitat for Humanity partners with financial organisations to provide access to credit and saving facilities to low incomes families. Over the last decade, Habitat has developed microfinance programmes in more than 30 countries including Kenya, Mexico, Vietnam and India.

Each microfinance programme is adapted to meet the specific needs of the community in which it is based. In some places, HFH partners with a local microfinance institution to offer housing-specific financial services, such as savings programmes and loans. In others, Habitat works directly with individual families or with savings groups that a neighbourhood of families have created to pool their resources.

Since 2008, Habitat Uganda has distributed more than 1,600 housing loans to people who could not finish a house or need to make much needed repairs or improvements.

Habitat Uganda partnered with an established microfinance institution, the Uganda Agency for Development (Ugafode). Habitat created a housing loan package for Ugafode that began in early 2008.  By the end of 2010 this partnership had supported more than 700 housing loans for low-income families.

Habitat Uganda also offers housing microfinance directly to families, along with financial-education classes. The effort focuses on the rural regions of the country where microfinance institutions are not as prevalent.

These housing microfinance programmes sometimes cause a dramatic change such as a new house that radically improves an entire family’s health and quality of life.  Other times, change is more subtle; a new roof to keep a family dry and warm or solar panels to power a home, or new access to clean water and a sanitary toilet.

In Sri Lanka Habitat’s microfinance initiative works directly with individual families through their “Save and Build” programme. 12 families save until they have enough money to build a small house. HFH matches their efforts with a loan allowing additional houses to be built. This means that within a period of two years all 12 families will have a new house. The repayments are immediately pumped back into the next Save and Build project, meaning work never stops on providing housing for those who desperately need it.

In March of 2009, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a branch of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and Habitat for Humanity Latin America and the Caribbean signed an agreement to undertake the project “Strengthening housing microfinance systems in Peru and Bolivia.” This three-year initiative aims to improve access to housing microfinance and construction services for low-income families, thus enabling them to improve their homes and their quality of life in general.

Watch this Video on the impact of HFH’s microfinance programmes on low income families in Peru and Bolivia.

Can you define Poverty Housing?

When we talk of Poverty Housing what are we actually talking about?

The world we live in has 1.6 billion people living in inadequate shelter, but do we really know what that means?

The most widely accepted definition of “adequate housing” is as defined by the UN International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:

 ”The States parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.”

Minimum housing requirements are listed as “tenure security, affordability, adequacy, accessibility, proximity to services, availability of infrastructure, and cultural adequacy”.

Other definitions explicitly recognize adequate housing as the right to “a place to live in peace and dignity” and acknowledge that this is often “…inextricably bound to the workplace, child raising, education, health care for the elderly and personal security, as well living conditions as a whole, including also emotional and psychological security for the family, particularly women and children.”

Have a look at Habitat for Humanity and the issues involved with Poverty housing and how these factors can be detrimental to the well being of the family:

• Overcrowding: Habitat defines overcrowding as more than three persons per room, although locally accepted standards for sufficient living area vary greatly. Overcrowding can have a negative effect on the mental and physical health of the family.
• Cost burden: This occurs when the cost of living in your own home exceeds personal costs. Such cost burdens anywhere in the world place housing in competition with other necessities.
• Health: Families in substandard housing suffer from health problems related to hazardous construction, damp floors and inadequate sanitation.
• Legal Tenure: Fear of unsafe surroundings and eviction, hopelessness and shame erode self-esteem and a sense of well-being.

A major problem in the context of poverty housing is slum dwellers. “Slums” are defined in various ways, but the core elements come down to three factors. First, slum households lack security of tenure. Second, their physical housing is inadequate, in terms of living space, durability, and safety. Third, slum households lack access to basic services. Slum shelters currently house over one billion people and are growing daily. UN-Habitat estimates that if current trends continue, there will be 1.4 billion slum dwellers by 2020.

The next series of blogs will discuss some of the core issues related to Poverty Housing and look at some of the different programmes that Habitat for Humanity has in place in order to tackle the the issue.

Today is World Water Day, a UN recognised day to highlight the importance of fresh water. Access to a clean supply of water for drinking and hygiene is a basic human need but more than 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to it.

2.5 billion people do not have access to safe sanitation. This puts them at risk of many diseases caused by contamination of groundwater and soil. As a result, 2 million people die from preventable diarrhoeal diseases every year.

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to drinking water and basic sanitation.

Here are some of the ways HFH works to promote water management.

Vietnam

44 per cent of Vietnam’s rural population have no access to improved sanitation, therefore water and sanitation services are central to HFH Vietnam’s projects. One of the initiatives in Vietnam is the “Rainbow Village” where 120 families are relocated from shacks in Rach Gia City Garbage Dump to a new development. HFH Vietnam also provides microfinance loans to make incremental housing improvements such as the building of toilets, boreholes and wells.

Ghana

Ghana’s rural population depends on unprotected wells, lakes and rivers for its water supply. Fewer than 10 per cent of Ghanaians have access to improved sanitation. HFH Ghana is directly involved in improving this situation by drilling boreholes that will furnish water for 60,000 people. It also provides training to locals in water management and behavioural change regarding health and sanitation. HFH Ghana also advocates access rights for marginalised groups as currently land and water rights are mainly vested in chiefdoms.

Tajikistan

40 per cent of the population, or 3 million people, lack improved water in Tajikistan. That means half the population contracts one or more water related illnesses each year.

HFH Tajikistan has developed an inexpensive water filter based on simple technology that does not need any chemicals or electric power. These filters are sold to families at 60 percent of the cost through one year no interest loans. Filters eliminate up to 90 per cent of waterborne pathogens and produce up to 60 litres of improved water per hour.

To view photos of Habitat’s Water and Sanitation work in Tajikistan click here.

Happy Mother’s Day

Habitat for Humanity Ireland would like to show its appreciation for mothers everywhere by wishing them all a Happy Mother’s Day.

Sunday is a good day to stop and reflect on the many women all over the world who face challenges everyday and keep on going.

Mother’s day is a celebration honouring mothers and their contribution to society. Mothers have an enormous influence on society and Habitat for Humanity is very lucky to work alongside these inspirational figures.

Habitat assists women who strive for a decent, safe and secure home for their children and helps them become homeowners. We work alongside mothers from all over the world and meet with mothers with very different circumstances.

HIV/AIDS has lead to millions of orphans in some of the countries that we work in. In many situations female family members take on the massive role of motherhood and look after their nieces or nephews, left without a mother due to the disease. The normal family composition in sub-Saharan Africa is grandmother and grandchild. These inspirational women look after their orphan grandchildren as their own.

Let’s not forget all those volunteers who are mothers and all those mothers of volunteers. Without the help of all of our volunteers Habitat could not build simple, decent and affordable homes for those who need them.

Thank you to all those mothers who work in Habitat, who work every day towards the goal of eliminating poverty housing.

Habitat for Humanity Ireland works in partnership with local government authorities, other non-profits and communities to build and renovate houses in Dublin to allow low income families the opportunity to buy their own home. Currently we are partnering with Dublin City Council to renovate four derelict homes in Inchicore, Dublin 8.

Rugby pundit Brent Pope and Dragons Den star Bobby Kerr working onsite with future Habitat homeowners Jennifer Clail and Fiona Corcoran (c) Habitat for Humanity Ireland / Dylan Vaughan

On this project we have worked alongside Fiona Corcoran and Jennifer Clail to renovate two, three bedroom Houses on Emmet Road. Fiona has two adult daughters and is currently living in a flat with two bedrooms. The flat is very small with only two bedrooms for three adults. There is no space in the apartment to cater for all their needs. Private space is therefore very limited.

Owning her own home will “allow us to have a better standard of living and give us the security of owning our own home” Fiona said.

The new Habitat home will give Fiona and her two daughters the space they need. When asked about working onsite with HFH Ireland Fiona said she was “very excited and looking forward to the physical work and meeting new people.”

Fiona’s wish for women all over the world on International Women’s Day is to be happy and feel love and love others and to have a safe a secure home.

Habitat for Humanity International held an International Women’s Day Women Build symposium on women and housing in Atlanta on March 8. Researchers presented findings from a recent homeowner survey. The survey indicates significant increases in areas of homeowner’s self esteem, well-being, overall family health and neighbourhood pride.

Some key findings from the survey include:

• Nearly 74 percent of respondents reported that their family state of well-being improved after moving into their Habitat home.
• More than 98 percent reported moderate to high self-esteem after moving into their Habitat home.
• 93 percent take pride in their neighbourhood.
• 97 percent felt that Habitat has improved their quality of life.
• 90 percent of women surveyed felt a sense of power being part of a Habitat build.

Habitat for Humanity carries out Women Builds around the world. Habitat’s Women Build recruits, educates and nurtures women to build and advocate for simple, decent and affordable houses in their communities. The first all-women built Habitat house was constructed in 1991, and since Habitat’s Women Build program was formed in 1998, more than 1,900 Habitat for Humanity Women Build homes have been constructed in partnership with Habitat partner families.

Habitat’s Women Build program and Whirlpool co-sponsored the survey conducted by Centre for Applied Research at the University of Southern Indiana. The survey reflects input from more than 320 Habitat homeowners (more than 85 percent of them women) in 44 U.S. cities.