Habitat World Online


Holly Grubb regularly puts her faith into action and is an eight-time Global Village team participant.

Service:
A Heart for 'Home' Leads to Service
Many Habitat volunteers cite their own housing experience as the reason why they want to help.

	Did you know… …that, on average, someone travels to build a Habitat house somewhere in the world every day of the year? More than 400 Global Village short-term trips to dozens of countries are scheduled for 2004. Find a trip schedule at www.habitat.org/gv.

by Milana McLead

It was a diverse group of women that gathered last September on a chilly night in a city half a globe away from their homes in the United States and Britain.

They ranged in age from 24 to 76, and included both professionals and retirees. Just days before, the group had met as strangers in a New Zealand airport. On this night they shared their thoughts about why they had come to help build a Habitat house for a person they'd never met.

"I didn't want my epitaph to read: 'She played a lot of tennis,' " said retiree Dottie Frost of Clearwater, Fla.

"Actions speak louder than words, and that's why I'm here," said Holly Grubb, a computer consultant from Ohio.

"I recognize how lucky I've been in life," said Pat Sullivan, a librarian from New York. "I know it is good to do something for others who haven't been so lucky."

Their voices echo the voices of legions of other Habitat for Humanity volunteers, who gather daily in countries throughout the world to build a house with a stranger.

For many, the motivation to serve is driven not only by recognition of the importance of decent shelter, but also by the psychological value they hold in their own homes.

Joan Marie Horvath is one such volunteer. New to Habitat for Humanity, her venture around the world last year to help build a house in New Zealand was a stretch out of her comfort zone. Even so, she was committed to helping a stranger.

"My home is a sanctuary--it means peace, security, warmth," she says. "I can't imagine not having that and being exposed to the elements. That idea alone [made me want to do this]--I felt it would be worthwhile and there is a tangible result of what you do."

Beyond the tangibility of the house as a solid, dimensional structure, there also are intangibles that provide good reason to take action. Roch Souabedet, a trainer for Habitat for Humanity in the Africa/ Middle East region, has seen firsthand the impact "home" can have on a family.


Global Village team leader Christine Longster interacts with children on site in India.

"I can say a home is a life," he says. "The poorest of the poor need a home, because if you don't have a home, [some people think] it means you're not a human being. ... I like to compare the traditional mud house with the new one built in partnership with Habitat. What we see is happiness, God's blessing. These joyful faces are the real meaning of a home: improvement on life's condition, a good heritage for children, security for the family, and a good place to rest and think about the future."

Tyler Duni, past president of Habitat's campus chapter at the University of California-Berkeley, also has seen the importance of home firsthand--in a way that changed his life.

When he was in high school in 2000, an area near his hometown in New Mexico was consumed with what became known as the Cerro Grande Fire. Some 400 families lost their homes, including several of Duni's friends. "The effects of losing the physical house weren't as bad as the emotional damage to homeowners," he says. "Though I didn't lose my own home, I sympathized with those who did. I shared their feelings of homelessness--physical or perceived."

An active Habitat volunteer for several years, Duni decided to lead a team of students to Zambia to help build houses in 2003. He says of the Habitat homeowners he met there: "They appeared to be very happy and were working hard to improve their lives. ... I think living in a supportive and happy community has done as much to benefit the homeowners in Zambia as the actual houses they live in."

Whether "home" is in Africa or America, the meaning of it still has the power to inspire, motivate and change lives. A place to call home can be a place where one can live and thrive, a place of refuge and success, a place of stability and dignity. But most of all, it can be a place of hope.

"I don't care whether you live in a $10 million house [or an affordable house]," says Avram Goldman, president and COO of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in California. "It still means the same thing--a home is a home."

Goldman, a volunteer since 1989 when Coldwell Banker "got behind" Habitat for Humanity, has "done everything from ditch-digging to working on the roof." Besides believing that having a home is vital to a family's stability, Goldman also remembers the days when he bought his first house and was "stretched to the max" while working as a teacher.

"If people truly want to make a difference in their communities and have an impact on the world, think back to the first time you wanted your first home," he says. "You can be a part of providing that for someone else. [You will] know that you're going to have an impact on the world long after you're gone. If you want to leave your mark, spend some time with Habitat for Humanity."

--Also reported by Rebekah Daniel, Samantha Schroeder, Apryl Chapman Thomas