Building a Better World Autumn 2012

Building a better world

Overwhelming response to our Supporter Survey

In this issue:International Women’s Day 2012

Nine Dragons build in Long An, Vietnam

Autumn Newsletter 2012

A warm welcome to our new magazine!

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The New Year has seen us as busy as ever working to give families a safe and decent place to call home. At the end of March a group of Habitat for Humanity Australia staff travelled to Cambodia as part of our Hand and Hearts Special Build program, where they spent a memorable week helping to build homes with 35 other Australian men and women. These volunteers each raised $5000 which was pooled to fund an entire community project – a great achievement in itself – and as always it was an unforgettable experience.

Angela Catterns, our amazing Habitat for Humanity Australia ambassador, also took part in the Hands and Hearts build. Angela helped to build safe homes for the first four families out of the 140 affected by HIV and AIDS who will eventually have a home to call their own, thanks to this project. It’s wonderful to have Angela on board.

This time last year I was lucky enough to be in Nepal on another build along with 100 other women. Organised to mark the Centenary of International Women’s Day, we helped build the first 10 houses for 250 female-headed Nepalese households, and it was a privilege to have a small part in transforming the lives of these incredible women. One of my colleagues, Jenna, has just returned from visiting the community to check on progress, and I’m delighted to share some of the highlights of her trip:

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter, Building a better world. I’m delighted to introduce you to the new-look magazine, which we hope you will enjoy reading as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together. I believe it’s a wonderful way to let you know in greater detail about the important and real impact your support is having in our programs in Australia and around the world – you are truly bringing hope to so many people living in poverty and despair who are working to better their lives and the lives of their families.

“I visited three of the families we helped on the build last year, and it was just amazing to see their ‘house’ was now a real ‘home’, with all their possessions arranged inside and posters on the wall.

One woman had a vegetable patch out the front. They were all so happy and they ran inside to get their framed photos of them with the volunteers on the build last year. One volunteer, Sara, was on the build last year and also revisited this year, and she told me when one of the families found out, the woman showered her in kisses.”

I hope you will find this issue informative and inspiring. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to share with you how your generosity is giving families the hand up they need, transforming lives and building brighter futures for generations to come. Thank you once again for your support.

Jo Brennan, CEO

140We are helping to build safe homes for 140 families and orphans affected by HIV and AIDS living in the Phnom Penh area

Jo Brennan helping to build homes during the Nine Dragons Special Build – Long An, Vietnam, December 2011

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Overwhelming response to first-ever Supporter Survey

Thank you to everyone who took part in our first-ever Habitat for Humanity Australia supporter survey – 932 of you in fact! We are very grateful to all those who took the time to respond. We received some very valuable feedback, a snapshot of which we are pleased to share with you below:• Themostcommonreasonfor

supporting us is the belief that “everyone has the right to safe, decent housing”.

• Whenaskedwhichfactsyou are most aware of, almost half of respondents indicated that they know Habitat for Humanity

gives people a hand up not a hand out by providing affordable home loans.

• Theareaofourwork that interests you most is Housing and Construction, closely followed by Water and Sanitation.

• Cambodia and Australia are the top two countries you’re most interested in hearing more about.

• Almostathirdofyouareinterestedin joining us as a volunteer on Global Village or Special Build trips, and almost a third of you visit our website to read about our work overseas.

• Closertohomeandjustas encouraging was the feedback that almost half of you would like to take part in Community Fundraising.

Regular GivingWe also discovered that many of you are interested in supporting us with a regular monthly gift. We are delighted to hear so many of you would like to support us in this way.

See page 11 for more information on our HopeBuilder program and how you can get involved.

Students from St Patrick’s Technical college building a home in Davoren Park, South Australia, September 2011

Christmas appeal raises vital funds for Long An, Vietnam

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed so generously to The Habitat for Humanity Australia Christmas Appeal. We raised $99,157 in total. And the funds raised can go towards projects like the one in Long An Province, Southern Vietnam.The aim of the project is to improve shelter security, health and disaster resilience for vulnerable community members in this disaster-prone region. This project has a gender focus and priority for the first homes to be built was given to single women and female-headed households (see related articles on International Women’s Day on page 7 and Nine Dragons Build on page 8).

As a result, 60% of the people to benefit from the first homes built were women, who were also encouraged to attend disaster- resilient construction training sessions to give them the confidence to fully participate in the construction of their new homes.

With a goal of 170 households living in newly-constructed homes by the completion of the project, already 150 households report feeling a greater sense of safety or physical security, 90 households are using safer water and sanitation facilities and 65 more are living in safer housing thanks to repairs and upgrades.

Community members in Long An are also now better prepared for natural disasters. Training in building disaster-resilient housing and making repairs has also been undertaken to ensure that people have the ability to cope with the effects of natural disasters.

We are grateful to our supporters whose generosity make projects like this a reality. Thanks to you, the people of Long An are well on the way to becoming healthier, happier and better able to cope with future disasters, now and for generations to come.

Image of Hai to feature here.

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Hai’s New HomeHai is standing proudly outside her new home as she helped build it. Hai has just celebrated the Vietnamese New Year in her new home.

Vietnamese New Year Nguyen-dan, Vietnamese New Year – or Tet, as it is more popularly known – is a very important festival. Falling between the harvesting and sowing of new crops, it provides one of the few breaks in the agricultural year and people prepare well in advance by cleaning their houses, polishing their copper and silverware and paying off all their debts.

On the last day of the year a plant such as the bamboo tree is planted in the courtyard of people’s homes and decorated with bells, flowers, and red streamers, not for decorative purposes but to guard the family against evil spirits.

During the middle of the day an offering is placed on the household altar for the family’s ancestors. This is done every day throughout the New Year Festival along with the burning of incense. During Vietnamese New Year people also visit their local temple and bring back flowers or greenery as a gift from the celestial spirits. This gift will be kept in the house all year.

On the first day of the New Year people visit their closest friends, teachers and parents. It is believed that the first person through the door in the New Year will reflect the family’s future luck and wealth. On the second day people visit in-laws and other friends. On the third day people visit the family of their teacher and more distant relatives, and on the fourth day the spirits return to heaven and business returns to normal.

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One of our home partner families during the Nine Dragons Build

Good news for the Klabat community in Bitung, Indonesia

Our Autumn Appeal has raised more than $33,000 to date, with funds going towards projects like the one in Klabat in Bitung, Indonesia. You may remember Usi In from this appeal, a brave and resilient woman who has been living with her family in these makeshift, overcrowded settlements with other members of her community since a bloody conflict forced them from their homes in 1999.

The build, which is due to start this month, aims to help the people of Klabat obtain land and group titles through joint community cooperatives. Once the land is secured they will be able to build safe new houses for themselves and their families and gain access to water and sanitation facilities. This will free them from life in the settlements and improve the community’s general health and living conditions.

With support from Habitat for Humanity Australia and our supporters, Habitat for Humanity Indonesia will provide training on land rights and the legalities of the sub-division process, and assist community members with identifying suitable land and obtaining legal permits. We will also help selected households improve their income-earning

capacity through vocational skills training and improved access to microcredit for the development of small businesses.

This is an exciting project that has already been very successful in the neighbouring Dembet community, where we’ve built new homes for the entire Dembet settlement and transformed the lives of 125 families.

We are very much looking forward to starting work on the next phase with the people of Klabat in the near future and would like to thank everyone who has supported this appeal to date and making this project possible.

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We’ve already completed phase one of this project and built homes for 125 families in Dembet, Bitung

Usi In, and her daughter, shown in front of her makeshift home in Klabat, Indonesia.

International Women’s Day 2012

International Women’s Day 2012 was celebrated recently on March 8 with the theme for this year being Women’s Economic Empowerment. This year was about celebrating the vital role women play in enhancing economic prosperity in their families, communities and countries while recognising that significant barriers to achieving women’s economic security and equality continue to exist.This is always an important day for Habitat for Humanity Australia, as our projects take particular care to focus on helping the most vulnerable groups in the communities where we work.

Projects such as the recent Nine Dragons Special Build in Long An, South Vietnam and the Hand in Hand Build Special Build in Nepal in 2011, are examples of this important aspect of our work that we are proud to support to ensure a brighter future for women everywhere (see related article about the Nine Dragons Special Build in Long An, South Vietnam on page 8).

Janette van Kernebeek was a volunteer on the Hand in Hand Special Build last year, where she was one of 100 women who travelled to Nepal to help build the first 10 houses for 250 female-headed households. Teams of 10 women per house built a new home in five days, with the assistance of home partners and local tradespersons.

Janette considers her time as a volunteer with Hand in Hand in Nepal a life-changing experience. In particular, getting to live and breathe Nepalese culture, working hard to ensure the team was able to hand over a house at the end of the week and meeting other women from diverse backgrounds. During the build she worked in dedicated teams surrounded by inspiring women and whilst fundraising for the project she was humbled by the amazing generosity of friends, family and colleagues.

“I’d like to return to Nepal to help finish the last 10 houses of the planned 250 and revisit the Itahari community,” Janette says. “It really was an emotional journey – to be hugged every day by our home partner Sakuntala and her young four-year old son, knowing we were building them a safe and secure home. I would definitely encourage others to do a build with Habitat.”

“ It really was an emotional journey – to be hugged every day by our home partner Sakuntala and her young four-year old son, knowing we were building them safe and would definitely encourage others to do a build with Habitat.”

Janette, in Nepal

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One of our home partners in Nepal – March 2012.

Global Village: spotlight on our volunteers and the Nine Dragons Build in Long An, Vietnam There are a number of rewarding ways our supporters can get involved in our work to fully appreciate and experience it firsthand: these include becoming a Global Village Volunteer or participating in a Habitat for Humanity Australia Special Build.The recent Nine Dragons Special Build was part of a 18 month long project in Long An, where 39 Habitat for Humanity Australia volunteers went to help build seven safe new homes in a week and raised $100,000 for this disaster-prone region (see related article on page 4).

To date almost all new homes have been completed. A construction supervisor from Habitat for Humanity Vietnam will continue to pay regular visits to supervise the construction progress and quality until completed, but the overall feedback from the seven home partners on the house construction quality was very positive.

Michael Hanbury, Habitat for Humanity Australia Nine Dragons Special Build volunteer, reflects on his experience: “I believe my week building in Long An was probably the single most rewarding thing I have had done in my life thus far. It has certainly made me aware of how fortunate I am and inspired me to make the most of the opportunitiesI have to help others, and to treasure the time I have with family and friends. I will be forever grateful to Habitat for giving me the opportunity to make such a difference.”

A Global Village standard build is a small team (usually 12-16 people). Generally led by a team leader who is a member of the public, these builds can be closed (meaning a school group or a group of friends that no members of the public can join) or open (meaning anyone can join including those between the ages of 15-18 who must be accompanied by a guardian). The team works on one house over a period of one to two weeks, and monies raised go towards the Global Village program in both Australia and the country they are building in. The donation target is around $1350, which can be fundraised.

A Special Build is a build that funds an entire project designed, implemented and monitored by Habitat for Humanity Australia in partnership with Habitat for Humanity in the host country. Volunteers not only leave a physical legacy (helping build one of the homes is part of the project) but also know their fundraising efforts will go to assist more families in the future. The donation target is around $5000, which can be fundraised, with the donation going towards the implementation and monitoring of the project.

If you are interested in taking part in a Global Village or Special Build please contact us on 1800 88 55 99 or email us at:[email protected] – we’d be delighted to hear from you.

“ I enjoyed gaining a better understanding of the issues and needs within developing countries, as well being much more involved in the local culture compared to the normal touristy holiday.”

Global Village build participant

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“ You don’t know me. We will never meet. But you are probably thinking the same things I thought when considering an experience like this. Now I am sitting on the other side of my journey with Habitat for Humanity, at its conclusion. Please remove any doubts and grab this opportunity with both hands. You are moments away from changing your life and the lives of so many people around you.”

Geoff Esdaile, HFHA volunteer

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A team of Nine Dragon Special Build volunteers from Australia travelled to Vietnam in December 2011, pictured here with one of our Home Partners

Domain.com.au matches every dollar to transform the lives of 1,000 families

You’ve probably already heard about our Thousand Homes for Hope plan to build 1,000 homes for 1,000 of the poorest families in Australia and neighbouring countries. We’ve already built 540 homes, so we’re well on our way to achieving our ultimate goal of 1,000 homes completed by end of June 2013.

By supporting the Thousand Homes for Hope Appeal, you are helping us to build a home and a whole new world for 1,000 families in real need.

Remember, for every dollar you give until 4th May 2012, Domain.com.au will match it, dollar for dollar, up to a maximum of $100,000.

Visit www.habitat.org.au/domain for more information.

Domain.com.au is a dedicated website for property seekers which provide tools and information for buyers, sellers and renters Australia wide.

There’s still time to take advantage of Domain.com.au’s offer to match every dollar raised towards our Thousand Homes for Hope campaign. That means that until Friday 4th May 2012, if you make a donation at www.habitat.org.au/domain, you’ll double the impact of your gift.

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A place to call home – school in Cambodia

Building Hope – one family at a time

Our HopeBuilders are a very special group of committed supporters who make a regular, monthly gift to give more families a safe place to call home – brick by brick, family by family, community by community. And by doing so, they’re helping us transform the lives of families from ones of absolute despair to ones filled with hope.

HopeBuilders give us a guaranteed, regular income that we can use to plan work alongside families and communities to give them a hand up to escape extreme poverty and give them hope – sometimes for the first time in their lives – that the future can be better.

Every monthly gift counts. For example, the average cost of build-ing a home in the countries where we work is just $2100.

That means that 70 HopeBuilders giving an average monthly donation of just $30 can help build a home every month.

If you are interested in becoming a HopeBuilder, call us on 1800 88 55 99 or visit www.habitat.org.au/hopebuilder to find out more.

Njor and her family lived in a makeshift house, in conditions so unhygienic and dangerous that Njor feared daily for her life and the lives of her children. We worked alongside the family to help them build a new home which is clean and safe. Now, Njor’s daughte r can play, eat, study, and live without fear. For the first time, the family has real hope for the future.

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Njor’s daughter running excitedly around her new home – November 2011

Gifts with a difference We’ve given our popular HabitatGifts a makeover, and now it’s easier than ever to send a gift to a loved one, friend or colleague for a birthday, anniversary, at Christmas – or any special occasion. Our gifts cover a whole range of items that represent the breadth of our work – from ‘The right tools for the job’, a tool kit to help a family build and repair their home or ‘A job for life’ which could pay for livelihood training, to ‘Pump it up’, giving a whole community access to clean water, and ‘The best seat in the house’ – a clean, sanitary toilet.You can choose between a printed card that you send yourself, or buy and send an e-card from our online shop – too easy.With Mother’s Day coming up on 6 May, a HabitatGift could be just the thing to put a smile on Mum’s face. www.habitat.org.au/habitatgifts

Together we can build a better world✁

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