Habitat for Humanity, Singapore

Millions of people worldwide face a housing crisis. More than 2 billion people live in poverty and another 1 billion live in urban slums. Many of these people earn less than US$2 per day, but are forced to pay more than half their income for housing, endure overcrowded conditions and/or live in houses with severe physical deficiencies. The high cost of housing leaves little money for other basic necessities like food, clothing or health care. Substandard housing can also endanger the health and safety of its occupants, erode their hope and self-worth, and even impair their children’s ability to succeed in school.

Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, Christian housing ministry. Habitat seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, by working with volunteer teams from all walks of life, races and religions; and also with the help of the local homeowner families. Through volunteer labor and donation of money and materials, simple and decent housing can be achieved. Habitat houses are sold to the local families at no profit, financed with affordable loans. This goes hand in hand with Habitat’s mission to provide a hand-up, and not a hand-out. Over 200,000 houses around the world have been built under this scheme, providing more than 1,000,000 people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. With the generous support in the form of donations from individuals and various groups such as churches and business corporations, thousands of low income families have found new hope in the form of affordable housing. Habitat also relies on the generosity of its supporters to fund its activities.

iPaLs’ Sponsor(s):

National Youth Council, Singapore