World Habitat Day!

It's World Habitat Day!

Advocacy isn't really something this affiliate focuses strongly on (which is something I hope to change) so we don't have a special event planned for today, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't take a moment to think about it.

Habitat for Humanity is an amazing organization that has built more than 300,000 houses world-wide in its 33 years. It's an organization that I love and hope to support throughout my life.

One of my goals for this year is to learn as much as I can about HFH, and I thought today was a perfect opportunity to do some research on international affiliates. I've discovered that while we at Suffolk tend to focus on our income cap, many international affiliates are focused on their income minimum. Dan, our executive director, was telling me that when he went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic the affiliate didn't have an income cap. With practically everyone living in substandard housing the affiliate was essentially looking for anyone who had land to build on and could afford the mortgage, including their board president.

I also found that HFH is becoming more and more involved with the concept of microfinancing, an idea that I am very much in love with. Habitat works with microfinance institutions (MFIs) in a few different ways, including outsourcing credit service so that partner families' loans are managed by these institutions, thereby helping both the family and the MFI. They also have a program called Building in Stages, where homes are built one stage at a time with a small loan that needs to be paid off each time in order to start the next stage.

Of course, I love my experiences with Habitat Suffolk and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be serving the community that I have called my home for virtually my entire life, but learning about the larger vision of Habitat International always makes me energized.

You don't have to love Habitat as much as I do, but I hope you'll take the time to consider supporting the HFH mission.