Habitat for Humanity Ireland

Contact information HFH Ireland Quadrant House, Chapelizod Dublin 20 Ireland Phone: +353 16299611 Fax: +353 16299648 E-mail: Karen@habitatireland.ie         Web site www.habitatireland.ie				Habitat's work in Ireland Full house sponsorship cost: US$270,070 Incremental house sponsorship cost: US$54,630
Country profile

Early in 2001, a group of enthusiastic individuals and representatives of churches and housing organizations from Dublin got interested in Habitat’s fight against poverty housing. In June 2002, a core group headed to Durban, South Africa, for the Jimmy Carter Work Project in order to experience the work of Habitat for Humanity firsthand. Upon their return, they formed a steering board and started an affiliation process. At the end of 2002, Habitat International’s board of directors met in Belfast and approved Habitat Ireland as a national organization.

How Habitat for Humanity works in Ireland

Habitat Ireland builds corporate relations with leading businesses, sends volunteers on international building trips through the Global Village program, partners with families, volunteers and other non profits and institutions to renovate derelict properties in Dublin and advocates for affordable housing.

Project support

In response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, Habitat for Humanity has developed a program to improve the lives of affected orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. Through partnership with Irish Aid, Habitat Ireland raised more than US$700,000 over three years for the program in Zambia. This money helps build homes for orphan-headed families.

Local building program

Habitat Ireland has been partnering with local organizations to build and renovate homes in partnership with low-income families in Dublin and its suburbs.

The development education program is a focus of Habitat Ireland’s advocacy efforts. It works with schools to educate students on the effect poverty housing has on a family’s life and helps students explore the symptoms and the root causes of housing poverty. At the same time, students are invited to explore how they can be the change they want to see in the world.

International volunteers

Habitat Ireland sends volunteers to different countries around the world to help families in need of decent housing. Since 2002, Ireland has sent more than 1,500 volunteers. Physically and financially, Irish volunteers have built and supported more than 700 homes and raised almost $2 million for Habitat building projects globally.

Corporate partners

Habitat Ireland has developed good relations with a number of corporate partners. Cooperation can take the form of direct financial support of projects or corporate volunteering. Among many supporters in Ireland are such corporations as Bank of America, Whirlpool, EBS, and Citi. An important part of work with corporate partners is organizing volunteer builds, when employees from one company go for a few days to work on Habitat projects in Dublin or overseas.

Meet a Habitat family

Innocent Mutele is 16 years old. He lives in a place called Kawama in Zambia, just two kilometers from the Congo border. His father died in 2005, and his mother died in 2007. He has been looked after by his mother’s sister, Mary, who is now 38 years old and has five children of her own. Mary’s husband died in 2003, and she suffers from poor health. She raises the children with some help from her aged mother. Habitat volunteers are building a house for Innocent, where he will move with his grandmother and some of his cousins.

What the volunteers said