hfh who we are_hi-res

Who we are. What we do.

For any enquiries contact our Supporter Services Team on 01753 313 539 or for general information visit our website www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk


At Habitat for Humanity, we are committed to helping more people improve their housing situations because we believe that adequate and affordable housing is a foundation for building a pathway out of poverty. I get excited when we develop strategies that will transform entire

communities and make life better for millions of people.

The part of my job that I love the most, however, is when I get to talk with those whose lives have been changed in so many ways because of a new or improved house.

For homeowner Soy Lorng in Cambodia, having a roof over her head is a great blessing. She told me recently about the difficult night she spent before taking possession of her new home. Her family previously lived in a makeshift shelter near a dumpsite. She had only a tarp to protect all of the family’s belongings and she spent the night standing up, trying to keep the rain out during a storm.

The next day, when we all gathered inside her new concrete-block home, the pounding rain started again. Soy Lorng examined the ceiling with such relief that not a drop of water seeped in. Having four walls and a real roof means she can sleep in peace.

Recently we passed an important milestone: since Habitat’s founding in 1976, we have helped more than 1 million families improve their housing situations. One of our long-term goals at Habitat is to build impact so that millions more people will be lifted out of poverty.

For families around the world, so many positive changes are taking place — because of a house.

However, millions of people still require a safe and clean home around the world. I hope you will help us transform more lives in the years to come.

Sincerely,

“

”1

Message from CEO...................... 1

Global Housing Crisis............. 2–3

The Importance of a Home......... 4

Our Work................................. 5–7

Our Work in Great Britain.......... 8

A Life Changed............................ 9

How You Can Support......... 10–12

Contact Us................................. 13

A message from the CEO Contents

Jonathan T.M. Reckford CEO, Habitat for Humanity International


The Global Housing Crisis

LACK OF ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION KILLS CHILDREN AT A RATE EQUIVALENT TO A JUMBO JET CRASHING EVERY FOUR HOURS6

827.6 MILLIONPEOPLE LIVE IN URBAN SLUMS 1

1.6 BILLION people wake up in appalling poverty eachday. This is the equivalent of everyoneliving in China and the USA combined.With every war or natural disaster thenumber of individuals who are forced into homelessness or substandard housing grows.

MORE THAN 3.4 MILLION people die each year from water, sanitation and

hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99%, occur in the developing world 5

BY 2020, IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THE WORLD SLUM POPULATION WILL REACH ALMOST 1 BILLION

CHILDREN UNDER 5 IN MALAWI LIVING IN HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOUSES HAVE 44% LESS MALARIA, RESPIRATORY

OR GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASES COMPARED TO CHILDREN LIVING IN TRADITIONAL HOUSES3

1 UN-Habitat, State of the World’s Cities 2010/2011, March, 2010.2 United Nations General Assembly, report of

the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living and on the right to non-discrimination, August, 2012.

3 Christopher G. Wolff, et al.,The Effect of Improved Housing on Illness in Children under Five Years Old in Northern Malawi: Cross-Sectional Study, BMJ vol. 322, 2001.

4 World Health Organization.5 World Health Organization (WHO). (2008). Safer Water,

Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health; Updated Table 1: WSH deaths by region, 2004.

6 Estimated with data from Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done. UNICEF, WHO 2009.

OVER 10,000 CHILDREN DIE EVERY DAY BECAUSE THEY LIVE IN POOR HOUSING4

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WHAT WE DID IN 2014

313,274 FAMILIES SERVED FY2014

1.6 MILLIONPEOPLE HELPED DIRECTLY BY CONSTRUCTION & OTHER SERVICES

3.2 MILLION+LIVES TOUCHED BY HABITAT IN FY2014

1.6 MILLION+PEOPLE REACHED BY TRAINING, EDUCATION & ADVOCACY

2 MILLION+VOLUNTEERS LENDING THEIR

HEARTS AND HANDS

OVER 1 MILLION FAMILIES

LIVING BETTER LIVES IN BETTER HOUSING SINCE 1976

The Global Housing Crisis

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SENSE OF DIGNITY AND

PRIDE

HEALTH, PHYSICAL

SAFETY AND SECURITY

INCREASE OF EDUCATIONAL

AND JOB PROSPECTS

STABILITY FOR FAMILIES AND

CHILDREN

MORE THAN FOUR WALLS AND A ROOF

A home is vital in transforming lives. It is the starting point to a better life for a whole family. Clean, safe housing means children can go to school and parents can earn a living. Improved water and sanitation, stoves and secure housing improve health. This positive cycle is shown below:

The Importance of a Home

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Disaster ResponseWe provide an end to end solution, starting with emergency aid and shelter kits but moving to long term sustainable solutions. We call it Pathways to Permanence.

Habitat for Humanity works in 70 countries globally including the UK, with the aim of ensuring every human being has access to their basic human right of a safe, decent place to live.

Our Work

Habitat assisted more than 250,000 people following the Haiti Earthquake in 2010. In response to Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 we helped more than 18,000 with our unique and proven disaster response solution. In 2014, the typhoon-resilient homes we built in the Philippines in the wake of the previous year’s disaster were used as emergency evacuation shelters during Typhoon Hagupit. This is testment to what we can achieve with your support.

Boy in transitional shelter, Haiti, following the 2010 earthquake

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Our Work

67% of all people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS live in sub Saharan Africa. Sadly, this includes 14 million AIDS orphans.

Providing shelter for orphans and vulnerable children is one of Habitat for Humanity’s leading programmes in Africa, now covering Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia and Lesotho.

Over 84,000 orphans and vulnerable children and their caregivers have been assisted through HFH programmes.

Our programmes include:

• Training in inheritance rights so that the children will be protected by their community from others taking their property from them.

• Providing clean, safe and secure housing.

• Health education, including education about HIV/AIDS. We work with other NGOs that provide food aid, education and skills training, healthcare and psychosocial support.

Orphans and Vulnerable Groups (OVG)

Nearly half of the world’s population (3 billion) live on less than £1.60 a day and lack access to the formal financial sector for credit, savings and mortgages.

What we know:

• Building a house in the developing world is a process.

• Families build their homes bit by bit as needs change and resources become available. This method is called “incremental” or “progressive building” and accounts for up to 90% of residential construction in the developing world.

• Recognising the need for greater access to housing finance among low-income people, Habitat pioneered the innovation and scalability of housing microfinance; we call it MICROBUILD.

Microfinance

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Habitat for Humanity has shown that building homes does more than put a roof over someone’s head. In clean, decent, stable housing:

• families can provide stability for their children;

• a family’s sense of dignity and pride grow;

• health, physical safety and security improve;

• education and job prospects increase.

House building, repairs, renovations and sustainability

Water and Sanitation. We work with communities to add clean water supplies and provide sanitary toilets. However, the provision of toilets and water by themselves is often not enough to bring about health changes such as a reduction in diarrhoea; another element is needed.

A change of behaviour is also needed so that good hygienic practices become embedded into normal, everyday behaviour. We call this Water, Sanitation and Hygiene training or WaSH training for short.

Improvements in health from clean drinking water, improved sanitation and WaSH training also link to economic benefits for those living in poverty.

Poor ventilation. From indoor cooking fires causes the spread of tuberculosis and pneumonia in cramped conditions and mainly affects women and children. By improving cooking facilities with clean cook stoves we reduce the levels of respiratory illness.

Mosquito nets. We provide treated Mosquito nets, which can dramatically reduce the level of malaria infection.

Secure housing. Improves health as vermin cannot come through the floor spreading disease and prevents rain coming through the roof.

Our Work

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Health


• New Build Projects – helping vulnerable families achieve sustainable home ownership and involving them in the construction of their homes as a form of “sweat equity” builds a sense of ownership and community. 51 affordable homes completed to date.

• Empty Homes Scheme – lease and repair scheme to refurbish empty/disused properties, based on the Government’s affordable rent model. There are wide benefits to the community simply by getting people housed who need it (nominations coming from the local council) and by dealing with the UK’s empty property issue. 39 homes completed to date.

• Community/Charity Partnership Projects – there are both refurbishment projects and new build projects which we work in partnership with other charities to complete. For example our work with Veterans Aid on their flagship hostel, Belvedere House. These are funded using corporate sponsorship and volunteering.

• 2015 Projects - The Triangle Playground, Oval, London and Oasis Farm, Lambeth North, London are just two of our many projects this year.

Habitat for Humanity work in Great Britain supporting homeless and vulnerable people such as single mothers that have suffered domestic abuse and need refuge, veterans from the armed services and abandoned youths. Our solutions for affordable housing and sustainability are:

Volunteer at The Soup Kitchen build in 2012. We built a warm and furnished soup kitchen close to Tottenham Court Road.

Our Work in Great Britain

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© H

abitat for Hum

anity International/Ezra Millstein

Kigege, Uganda12 year-old Jackline Nabakiibi stands on the construction site of her family’s new home. Her father Jackson Ssemakula (photographed below), a professional builder, has always had a dream of building his own home for his growing family and embarked on this project in 1993. 16 years later – he had only finished about a third of the house due to lack of financing.

Through Habitat for Humanity and the MicroBuild Fund, Jackson received his first loan in November 2009 and raised the walls to the roofline throughout most of the house. They then took out a second loan to replace the existing roof and began placing new roofing over the rest of the house. The house is now completed and both loans are paid back.

A Life Changed

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FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Regular gifts

By supporting us by Direct Debit you can help ensure we are able to plan our work and help thousands of people around the world that need our assistance.

Corporates, Foundations, Trusts and Philanthropy

Supporting Habitat for Humanity through your company, Trust, Foundation or personal contribution can be tremendously rewarding. We would love to work with you to create a mutually beneficial partnership that allows you to see the remarkable impact your support can have directly to families across the world.

How You Can Support Habitat For Humanity

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As a charity we are in a unique position to be able to provide our supporters with real opportunities to engage in the work that we do first-hand. This could be working alongside our home partners to create a home for a vulnerable individual or family living on the breadline in the UK, or perhaps helping build community facilities on one of our orphans and vulnerable children programmes in a developing country.

Global Volunteering Programmes

Ever since our launch in Great Britain, Global Volunteering has been one of the most exciting opportunities for our supporters to work alongside our ‘home partners’ (the beneficiaries of the houses YOU will be building). Our 1-2 week build experiences not only provide a tangible benefit of a completed home that you will donate to a family at the end of your trip but we can guarantee this will be a life changing experience for you as an individual.

Domestic Volunteering Programmes

Poverty is not just overseas. It is on our doorsteps too. Habitat for Humanity has a number of initiatives here in the UK to combat the UK poverty housing crisis. For those of you unable to dedicate as much time to one of our overseas volunteering opportunities, there are volunteering opportunities here in the UK.

VOLUNTEERING


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EVENTS FUNDRAISING

Q: What happens when thousands of voices come together for a common cause?

A: People notice and change occurs! That’s Advocacy.

By collectively using our voices, we can advance access to affordable housing. It can be as simple as:

Sharing on social media

Adding your name to a petition

Calling your local MP

Writing to your newspaper

RAISING AWARENESS AND ADVOCACY

You could choose to be part of our challenge events team and run, walk, trek or ride to make housing poverty a thing of the past. What about running an event for Habitat for Humanity? We can support you with advice and materials to ensure its success.


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If you would like to get involved with Habitat for Humanity please contact us at [email protected] or call us on 01753 313539.

Please follow, add, like, tag and keep in touch via our social media:

facebook.com/habitatforhumanitygb

@HabitatFHGB

instagram.com/habitatfhgb

youtube.com/Habitatgreatbritain

www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk

linkedin.com/company/habitat-for-humanity-great-britain

How you can support Habitat for Hummanity

Together we can turn this...

...into this

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