About the Habitat Map App

In celebration of Habitat′s 500,000th and 500,001st milestone and World Habitat Day, we’ve created the Habitat Map App to encourages volunteers to tell us where they’ve built with Habitat for Humanity. Our goal is to create a dynamic representation of 35 years of Habitat volunteer experiences around the globe. Add your previous experience and tell us--what was it that made your Habitat experience memorable? Then help us spread the word by sharing with your friends and family.

Washington, DC, United States April 2011

Celebrating 500,000 homes.

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Washington, DC, United States (April 2011)

Created by Lisa Renee H.

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About my experience What do the challenges our world is facing – challenges such as a global economic downturn and global warming – look like from the view of a mountainside in central Guatemala? What role does housing play in the work of alleviating poverty – both for a family and for our world? Surrounded by the breathtaking Guatemalan landscape and its inspiring culture, we grappled with these questions. Build Louder trips are designed to give participants not only a chance to build homes, but also an opportunity to learn more about the deeper issues connected to shelter and a chance to respond to these issues by advocating on behalf of the needs of the poor. Our trip included a visit to an informal settlement outside of Antigua. We climbed and stumbled along a steep mountainside meeting members of the community and learning together how to interpret what we were seeing. We considered why these families were living there, and the opportunities and challenges they faced. For the residents of this informal settlement the limited prosperity they gained from working the nearby coffee plantation make it worthwhile for them to brave the landslides that threatened and often destroyed their homes each year. The rest of our time in Guatemala was split between building homes in Chimaltenango and advocacy work in Guatemala City. Each experience made the other richer. As we built in two communities we knew something about the challenges they faced in terms of their livelihoods, their rights – or lack thereof due to insecure tenure, their ability to endure a variety of natural disasters, and their health. And as we advocated we knew names and faces; we knew stories of resilience and triumph when the right resources – such as secure tenure and well laid foundation – were made available. We left Guatemala knowing the impact of a shovel and a partner.

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Lisa Renee H.
Washington, DC, United States

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