Habitat seeks to expand networks

MANILA, Philippines - Habitat for Humanity International was founded by businessman Millard Linden Fuller in 1976 in Georgia, USA. But it was only in 1984, after the term of Jimmy Carter as president of the United States, did it acquire international prominence to a point that Carter continues to be mistaken as the founder of this noble group.

Fuller was a very successful wealthy man since his youth and became restless about achieving something deeper than wealth in his maturity. So he started a volunteer construction group to provide homes for the blighted slums of Georgia then New York. Then he decided to divest himself of everything and focus his resources and his time to Habitat. When Carter’s term ended, Fuller convinced his neighbor to join him in promoting the movement.

Now, Habitat is in 91 countries, 23 of them in Asia Pacific, including the Philippines. Habitat wants to expand its linkages and network even more by getting in more volunteer groups (NGOs, People’s organizations, local governments, corporate entities and even schools) to become part of this growing volunteer movement. In the Philippines, Habitat was founded in 1988.

More than just providing homes—which are not dole outs or given free to pre-qualified beneficiaries who must come from disaster areas or those from really blighted and endangered communities—Habitat also teaches the beneficiaries to empower themselves economically so that they develop a stature where they, too, can help others in the future, said Richard Hathaway, vice president of Habitat for Asia Pacific who is in town to finalize, mobilize and promote the group’s coming 2^nd Asia Pacific Housing Forum, along with former beauty queen, Margie Moran Floirendo, Co-Chair of Friends of Habitat.

Its forum is organized jointly with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to be held at Dusit Hotel in Makati City on September 7 to 9, 2009. Its theme is “Maximizing Urban Poverty Solutions for Greater Results.” The forum expects to gather major stakeholders in the social, private and public sectors, academe and international organizations to share best practices, solutions and resource needs for the large and growing number of people living in substandard housing environments.

Hathaway said more than 500 million people live in urban slums in Asia Pacific and the drift to towns and cities continues. The poverty associated with crowded, unsanitary, unsafe living conditions is a major challenge for the 21^st century.

The first Habitat forum, held in Singapore in 2007, showed the value of bringing together shelter specialists from very different backgrounds to learn from each other. In Manila, the focus will be on the specific issues faced by the urban poor and practical ways to alleviate the burden of slum conditions, Moran-Floirendo said.

She added that the forum presents opportunities for forging tie ups and partnerships in housing projects, as potential sources of housing finance, cost efficient technologies, and social entrepreneurs are brought together in the event.

Speakers to the event are experts in housing concerns such as Dr. Nicolas Retsinas from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, a former chairman of Habitat; Bruce Ferguson, former urban economist of the World Bank and a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Urban Development; Graham Saunders, head of shelter department of IFRC and Red Crescent Societies based in Geneva; and Huub Cornelissen, director on energy and housing of the Netherlands Development Finance Corp.

From the Philippines, the speakers include Bangko Sentral Deputy Gov. Nestor Espenilla Jr. and keynote speaker is Vice President Noli de Castro, who also chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.