Urban Slum Areas

[scandinavian girl]

[Rajah_Soliman]

HOUSING FOR POOR
RP’s Habitat is world’s No. 2 home builder

First posted 04:33am (Mla time) Oct 20, 2006
By Volt Contreras
Inquirer



Editor's Note: Published on Page A1 of the October 20, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

WAY TO go for this “volunteer-friendly” shelter program.

Thanks to its volunteers in white shirts and other committed partners, the Philippine chapter of Habitat for Humanity has become the “No. 2” home builder for the poor out of the over 100 countries now covered by the 30-year-old Christian housing ministry.

HFH-Philippines yesterday said it was able to complete up to 3,500 low-cost housing units in a single year nationwide, making it the biggest Habitat builder “in terms of efficiency and capacity” second only to its US counterpart, which builds 5,000 units.

The group reached this record among the global Habitat affiliates last year, Alberto Jugo, HFHP president and chief executive officer, said at a press conference held yesterday to mark National Shelter Month.

Since Habitat was established in the country in 1988, some 15,000 shelters in well-planned communities -- from single-detached bungalows and duplexes to townhouses and medium-rise “condos” -- have been made available at affordable rates to former slum dwellers.
The antipoverty movement has also turned office workers or students into builders who rely mainly on their bare hands to put up the walls and foundations of houses in Habitat neighborhoods.

Jimmy Carter in Cavite

A Habitat project in Maragondon town, Cavite province, in March 1999, saw former US President Jimmy Carter sweating it out with other volunteers, foreigners and Filipinos alike, including from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

HFH International, based in Americus, Georgia, in the United States, is a nonprofit ecumenical mission founded in 1976 by Millard Fuller and his wife Linda. Worldwide, it has since built more than 200,000 homes for about a million people.

In the Philippines, Habitat projects have spread to 20 provinces and 29 cities, creating more than 100 new communities from the slums of Metro Manila to the coastal shanties of Mindanao.

The projects have “transformed lives” not only of dirt-poor informal settlers but also of salary-earners, like teachers, policemen and government employees who could not otherwise afford decent housing, Jugo said.

From today’s 15,000 homes, HFH-Philippines is targeting a total of 50,000 units by 2011, he said.

Far from being dole-outs, Habitat houses are sold to the “home partners” -- or beneficiaries -- at no profit. The payments are affordable, zero-interest, inflation-adjusted mortgage loans.

Sweat equity

Under its “house-for-house” principle, payments made by a home partner go to a trust fund that is then made available to another beneficiary, and so on.

In addition to an initial down payment representing one-third of the cost of the house (usually P60,000), the homeowner must invest hours of physical labor -- a concept called “sweat equity” -- in building his or her house and those of others.

It is during the construction phase that partner corporations, schools and organizations -- both local and foreign -- sponsor affordable materials and an army of volunteer builders.

Habitat is unique because it is a housing program that is on the lookout for the latest building technology, partly to make construction as “volunteer friendly” as possible, according to Jugo.

The use of interconnecting blocks -- rather than the traditional hollow blocks -- makes for a less-taxing but still professional job even for the untrained volunteer, he said.

The material is so easy to handle that “it is like putting together Lego,” especially when the volunteers include musclemen from the military or police, he said.

Habitat home designs have also adopted steel frames for roofs for a more durable structure that is also “cheaper in the long run.”

Values

But the mission doesn’t stop the day the houses are occupied. An equally crucial aspect of developing Habitat communities is the promotion of personal and communal values among the residents that could finally break the cycle of poverty.

Livelihood programs are introduced to better improve their incomes -- and their capacity to pay their mortgage. A “culture of savings” is promoted.

“We want parents to consider it a crime not to send their children to school. We want their daughters to feel safe when they walk home at night the moment they enter the vicinity,” Jugo said.

“For a community must first be organized and eager to be good neighbors or else it would be difficult to build for them,” he said.

[scandinavian girl]

[Rajah_Soliman]

http://www.youtube.com/v/mRXweo_Vdlc

[scandinavian girl]

[davaoeagle]

Originally Posted by scandinavian girl

Informativ film...nice..

Wow, what a good way to remind us of the big responsibility we have towards our native country.

[richard fischer]

[QUOTE=scandinavian girl;10197378]

Originally Posted by richard fischer

Hallo Richard aus Heidelberg

Ich bin nicht auf den Philippinen. Ich bin in Scandinavien...noch... bist du in The Philippines oder in Deutschland...?

grüss dich scan-girl,

ich lebe zur zeit in deutschland. manila war meine geburtsstätte, ich lebte dort 13 jahre. nun lebe ich in europa. und du willst wieder zurück ins mabuhay-land ? where asia wears a smile :-)

www.richardfischer.net

[TheAvenger]

@ Lena my friend.

this my gift to you....smile..

[IMG][/IMG]

jibrael

[Rajah_Soliman]

Saturday, October 28, 2006
City to purchase lot for Muslim cemetery
By Grace L. Plata

THE Office of the City Mayor of Davao will purchase a three-hectare land in Sirawan for the long-awaited burial ground for Muslims.

Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said this would alleviate the difficulty of the Muslims who have to transport their dead to Samal for burial.

In the city, Muslims used to bury their dead in an area at the Ma-a Public Cemetery but this is already full.

The parcel of land amounting to P7 million will be handed over to the Muslim community in Davao in the first quarter of next year, the mayor said.

Duterte will also cause the development of a city-owned land in the Sirawan area as residential relocation for the city's homeless. (inay ko po!!!!! katabi ng sementeryo!!!)

For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here.

(October 28, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.

Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.

[scandinavian girl]

[scandinavian girl]

[scandinavian girl]

[TheAvenger]

Originally Posted by scandinavian girl

Thank you jibrael..Vasa...nice..in a more modern design than the old one..has a different "wheat" in the middle..anyway nice and I like the colours...

Thanks alot, and I wish you to a very nice Friday night and a nice Saturday....

Welcome and wish you good day.

Are you connected with NGO ?
I also have a friend who is with the ILO Indisco whose main work is helping the indingenous people like Lumads or the non-christian tribes. She is a member of our Manila High School Alumni, a graduates of U.P. and connected with ILO Indisco with office in Makati. I think she used to go Mindanao since their main work is the indingenous people.

[TheAvenger]

Originally Posted by emesber

Welcome and wish you good day.

Are you connected with NGO ?
I also have a friend who is with the ILO Indisco whose main work is helping the indingenous people like Lumads or the non-christian tribes. She is a member of our Manila High School Alumni, a graduates of U.P. and connected with ILO Indisco with office in Makati. I think she used to go Mindanao since their main work is the indingenous people.

Oh I forget to relate that her elder sister also a member of Manila High School alumni is residing nearby you at Helsinki Finland. Is Finnish an Scandinavian stock or more on Slavic side ?

[scandinavian girl]

[Rajah_Soliman]

here's another "sister-forum" i can suggest...albeit this is not so vulgar as the one i previously advertised here ......

http://www.relationshipforums.com/forums/

[davaoeagle]

Originally Posted by rajah_soliman

Saturday, October 28, 2006
City to purchase lot for Muslim cemetery
By Grace L. Plata

THE Office of the City Mayor of Davao will purchase a three-hectare land in Sirawan for the long-awaited burial ground for Muslims.

Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said this would alleviate the difficulty of the Muslims who have to transport their dead to Samal for burial.

In the city, Muslims used to bury their dead in an area at the Ma-a Public Cemetery but this is already full.

The parcel of land amounting to P7 million will be handed over to the Muslim community in Davao in the first quarter of next year, the mayor said.

Duterte will also cause the development of a city-owned land in the Sirawan area as residential relocation for the city's homeless. (inay ko po!!!!! katabi ng sementeryo!!!)

For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here.

(October 28, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.

Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.

The mayor is again showing his balanced kind of governance. No ethnicity is left out. Everyone's getting a fair share of the pie.

[abskess]

Yeah, diha gyud ko saludo kang mayor ba!

Just and humane leadership, balanced governance

[Rajah_Soliman]

i hope and pray that she's now happy there in the sister threads

[davaoeagle]

no comment!