Help us celebrate World Habitat Day!

Just over 30 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly declared the first Monday of October to be World Habitat Day.

The intention of this declaration is simple: to call attention to the need and the importance of decent housing worldwide.

Habitat For Humanity stands proudly with the many other organizations in the world who take that declaration as a call to action. Ensuring that everyone has a decent place to live is our ultimate goal.

The impacts of decent housing are wide-ranging: from providing suitable places for distance learning and remote work; to having the ability to roll wheelchairs through doorways and down hallways without obstacles; to shrinking wealth gaps; to improving racial disparities. Decent housing is front-and-center to all that and more. We encourage you to sustain our efforts with your prayers, with your volunteer involvement and with your financial support. Together we can build a world where there are no more shacks, and everyone can say they live in a decent place.

HOUSING IMPACTS

Imagine that your life is cruising along with a decent job and the birth of your second child. Imagine the hopes and dreams of your future raising your children and sharing time with them doing homework together or playing games or going on trips. Imagine the day all that shatters when an unexpected health issue ultimately puts you in a motorized chair. And imagine not being able to find a housing unit to accommodate your needs anywhere nearby…in fact 2 hours away. That’s exactly what happened with Desiree who for the last 4+ years has been living in an adapted housing unit in the cities while her two children stay with grandma in Brainerd so that those children can go to school in Brainerd and be near all their friends. Lakes Area Habitat For Humanity fulfilled this need and now Desiree lives in her fully accessible home…with her children!

Imagine when the sun goes down each night that the streets become dark and unsafe. Imagine if your home isn’t connected to the electric grid that sundown also means a dark home. Imagine a simple addition to that neighborhood being a solar powered street lamp which not only brings a new element of safety to the neighborhood, it also brings out children in clusters huddled under the street lamp…so they can do their schoolwork. That’s just one of the impacts of the work Habitat Haiti along with the hundreds of homes built each year.

Imagine breathing unhealthy air every day because your wood fired cooking stove fills the air with smoke. Imagine the respiratory illnesses the entire family endures from that smoke. Imagine the instant change made with the installation of a smokeless stove that not only improves the air quality but uses a fraction of the wood because it is so efficient. That’s one of the programs of Habitat Guatemala along with the thousands of homes built each year.

​​​​​​​Imagine finding a home…wherever in the world outside the USA…and move in, settle into a routine and begin thriving. Imagine one day hearing knocks on the door and the person knocking claiming rights to the home. Imagine having no way to prove otherwise and being at risk to losing the home with no legal recourse. A major initiative of Habitat International world-wide is working with countless people to secure land tenure rights, what we call land title. These land tenure rights bring a sense of peace and security to populations around the globe. There is much, much more work to be done to ensure those who live in homes can prove that they have the rights to live in those homes.

Decent housing isn’t just about walls and roofs: it’s about handicap access; it’s about a safer neighborhood; it’s about healthier indoor air; it’s about land rights. All this and more is what Habitat for Humanity is all about. To learn more about Habitat’s global impact, check out the HFHI website: www.hfhi.org.

You are an important part of all this work. Your prayers, your time and talents, your treasures are what keep us moving forward. Thank you for taking up the UN General Assembly’s call to action – we urge you to continue to do so. With your support, one day we will have a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Here’s how you can help:

• To volunteer, contact Greg at 218-454-7021 or visit Volunteer – Lakes Area Habitat
• To donate, contact Lori at 218-454-7019 or visit Donate – Lakes Area Habitat

In peace,

Kevin Pelkey, Executive Director​​​​​​​