Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 8 No. 4 - Corporate Citizenship
Building Blocks
With Habitat for Humanity, one need not be a carpenter to build houses for the poor
By Ana Maureen P. Macaraig

Laying hollow blocks and mixing cement were never as much fun as it had been that sunny day of 6 August 2001. Building a house, for that matter, never looked as easy as it did that same day at Pinugay, Rizal. With volunteers, donors, and future homeowners pitching in to complete at least 2,100 30-square meter houses within the year in 25 sites around the Philippines, the construction sites turned into playgrounds with a cause. This is the Habitat for Humanity environment.

Habitat for Humanity Philippines (HFHP) is a non-profit organization which aims to uplift the lives of the poor by providing housing that is simple, decent, and affordable. HFHP, established in 1988, is part of the global network of Habitat for Humanity International which was founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller. To date, the Philippine partner and its affiliates have already built more than 3,500 houses nationwide.

Contributors to the Cause
Supporting the cause of Habitat for Humanity can be done in many different forms. The organization has a very active volunteerism framework that encompasses more than just activities to raise enough money for the construction of the houses, although that is of primary concern as well. Volunteers are tapped to work side by side with professionals and skilled workers in the construction of the houses. People can volunteer individually or as part of a delegation.

Volunteers need not worry if they don’t have the construction skills. For as long as one is willing to learn along the way, he will easily catch up with the guidance of the skilled workers. Most company volunteers, though, give more than their time for the Habitat for Humanity cause. Recognizing the need for funding, they participate by being a builder, a house sponsor, or a cash donor. Builders are those who sponsor five to ten houses totalling P600,000 to P1.2 million, while a house sponsor funds a house for P120,000. Cash donations between P50,000 and P100,000 are included in HFHP’s Bayanihan Club, and like the other sponsors, are acknowledged by the organization.

World Leaders Build
Marking its 25th year, Habitat for Humanity International celebrated this year with an event called the World Leaders Build 2001. The event featured the simultaneous building of Habitat Homes in five continents during the period 6-11 August.

In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the build along with the business and civic community. Among the companies who actively participated were the Ayala Group of Companies, Aegon Life Insurance, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Philippine Electric Corporation, Lafarge Cement, Petron Corporation, SM Prime Holdings, International Exchange Bank, Metrobank Foundation, the Lopez Group of Companies, the Aboitiz Group Foundation, Sun Microsystems, Manila Banking Corporation, Universal Motors, Cebu Pacific, American Standard, ING Barings, Mariwasa Tiles, Amkor Anam, Splash Foundation, Zuellig Foundation, Philippine National Oil Company, the Makati Business Club, First Philippine Industrial Park, the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Lucky Homepartners
Habitat for Humanity Philippines makes sure that sponsored houses go to the right hands. This is why families who wish to become homepartners should belong to the lower 30% of the economic strata and must have no previous housing loan from any agency or access to any financing for housing. These interested families are subjected to background investigation and, if chosen, are expected to comply with certain requirements like attending meetings and pre-qualification seminars, accepting board resolutions, and paying a membership fee and regular monthly dues to their homeowners association as active members.

One interesting requirement imposed by HFHP is the rendering of sweat equity. Each homepartner family should put in at least 400 hours of labor into the construction of his own and other families’ houses in order to reduce labor cost. But what makes sweat equity a more meaningful requirement is the fact that it ensures personal involvement of all family members, as well as contributes to the strengthening of cooperation and support within the community.

Community-building
For the new homeowners, the construction activity in that whole week of August in Pinugay, Rizal, and in other sites nationwide has truly made them feel like they were actually building a small community of new neighbors, and new living environment.

But for the rest of the volunteers who took part in the HFHP build, the community formed is much bigger – one that is composed of people from all walks of life, pitching in bits and pieces of their time and financial resources to give poor but deserving families a better chance to quality life.