First, I’d tell what these Habitat people do. They build cost effective houses for families who live in inadequate houses. The family should pay back the material cost (no-profit mortgage / no-interest loans) but there is no labor cost as the labor is provided by volunteers. Some companies like Whirlpool make donations for habitat constructions to reduce the material cost. This organization (Habitat for Humanity) is a worldwide organization which does constructions in regions of Asia, Middle east & Africa, United States, Latin America and Canada.
So..do people volunteer? Of course. The ideal work groups are teams from private companies, Student groups, scouts, etc. People from our work place participated in this last week, as a team building activity. The construction site we worked on belongs to Habitat of Monroe county. There were three houses being constructed. Our people worked on installing insulation, pantry cabinets and trimming the ceilings and walls. Also, we had to organize two trailers full of power tools, nail buckets, concrete, I’d say everything needed for constructions. Well it was not that easy. Had to grab all those out and reorganize. But volunteers normally don’t feel that way. They volunteer expecting nothing but satisfaction. At least, that’s what I got.
I think people should be informed about this organization. Honestly I didn’t know about this till I come to US. I wonder why we didn’t know about Habitat in Sri Lanka. Why many of private companies organize team building events spending/wasting enormous amount of money? I’d rather give a hand for this at least once coz what you get at the end is lot more worthy.
Fight poverty – Build hope !!!
Kalani Ruwanpathirana - blog 