Brilding homes for people

people in need

By Pauline Walker

HABITAT for Humanity is an organisation that deserves wider recogni tion in the Pacific region. Its sole purpose is to build “sim ple, decent, affordable homes” for low income people. This is not a charity or give away programme but one of shared endeav our towards home ownership. Volunteers do much of the work, and a basic theme is “partnering” - the co-operation of individu als and groups both within a country and between different countries.

An international non-profit organisation

founded in the United States, Habitat for Humanity has affiliates practically all over the world. In the Pacific region, it is already active in Fiji, Papua New guinea, New Zealand and Australia. A new programme in the Solomon Islands began this year, and one in Samoa is currently being developed.

In Fiji the first Habitat for Humanity (HFH) house was built in 1993, in Nadovu Village, Naitasiri, where Cyclone Kina had caused massive damage by flooding.

Since then the entire village has been rebuilt, and Habitat’s Vanuaca affiliate, the local organisation that developed for this purpose, is now building its 100th house.

In all of Fiji, HFH affiliates have built 178 houses in five years. Sturdy dwellings, of either concrete block or timber frame construction, with corrugated metal roof, they have been constructed at an average pre-devaluation cost of F 53200. This has lifted to about Fs3Boo since the price of roofing escalated. Volunteers, both local and international, provide free labour under the supervision of a paid local carpenter.

The cost of the house, with no interest charge, is repaid by the homeowner over an agreed number of years. Although the impetus and initial expertise come from overseas, the idea is that Habitat for Humanity becomes “the people’s pro gramme”, according to Judy Blanchette, the Suva-based Pacific Regional Director.

Mrs Blanchette and her husband, Jack, were Peace Corps Volunteers in Fiji in the 1980 s, and returned to Fiji in 1995 to work for Habitat for Humanity.

Training of local staff has been a large part of their endeavour, and Fiji now has eighteen (full-time and part-time) local

employees. Local organisation and partici

pation are the core of Habitat’s building programme, says Mrs Blanchette. Local volunteers come together to form a com mittee, called an affiliate, which accepts

applications from prospective homeowners,

assesses their need, organises the building of houses, and receives the homeowners’ repayments. Each HFH affiliate has Board of Directors who are local residents, and an Affiliate Co-ordinator who is a full-time employee, paid by the affiliate. The affili ate has its own strategic plan, budget and bank account.

A family that needs a home applies to the Habitat affiliate. The affiliate’s Family Selection Committee considers each appli cation, assessing the applicants’ need for new housing and their ability and willing ness to do their share. Income and other commitments are examined, because the potential homeowners are responsible both for repaying the loan (the cost of the mate rials) and for helping build the house.

Emphasising responsibility, not charity,

Habitat for Humanity requires a fundamen tal commitment from prospective home owners. Besides paying for the materials, the homeowners must be willing to put their own labour - “sweat equity” - into their new house. In its initial stages, an affiliate’s financial base is largely money from local fundraising and donations, sup plemented from the national HFH office.

But as houses are built, the loan repayments go into a revolving fund which in turn buys materials for more houses to be built. In this way, as homeowners repay their loans, they are also making it possible for more people to be better housed. Volunteer work is at the heart of Habitat for Humanity’s mission and success. Founded by Christians, HFH receives wide support from churches. Many individuals who work with Habitat do so as an expression of their Christian faith. But people of other religions, or no religion, also participate in construction and in home ownership. In thousands of projects in 59 countries around the world, folks are help ing their neighbours build new homes.

Enthusiastic groups of volunteers even travel abroad, in the spirit of international co-operation, for short periods of intensive building in another land. Fiji is a popular for volunteers who feel they have truly enjoyed a vacation with a purpose. ■