Habitat for Humanity empowers Dominican families through housing
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As November has been designated Family Month in our country since 1971, Habitat for Humanity Dominican Republic reaffirms its commitment to ensuring that all Dominicans have a decent place to live, by building homes that improve their quality of life.
Santo Domingo, November 2019. For more than 30 years, the international non-profit organisation Habitat for Humanity has sought to improve the living conditions of millions of families in more than 70 countries, especially those without enough income to have adequate housing.
Based on the premise that “everyone deserves a decent place to live”, Hábitat Dominicana has sought to meet those needs by delivering more than 26,000 housing solutions and impacting some 135,000 people in the country, explains Cesarina Fabián, director of Habitat for Humanity in the Dominican Republic.
Family wellbeing is defined by various elements, and one of them is having the peace of mind of a decent home where the members of the household can live together.
“A home provides the strength, stability and self-reliance families need to get ahead and have a better future. Habitat’s foundation is to support families who need it, so that they feel empowered and capable of achieving a decent place to live by themselves,” says Fabián.
The director explained that “we contribute to the country’s development by improving the quality of life of families who are part of the qualitative and quantitative housing deficit, through access to housing microfinance with technical construction assistance, and by creating financial education programmes that help reduce that deficit”.
Fabián also noted that housing is a catalyst that contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Housing as a process can give families a sense of place and belonging, fostering community cohesion. It also has effects on the family, since building properly creates resilience and reduces vulnerability to economic, social and climate-related events.
The quality of a home has major implications for people’s health, according to the WHO (World Health Organization). In its report, the WHO states that the link between housing and health is clear and has grown substantially in recent times. Demographic and climate changes are making housing an increasingly important element for health.
Poor living conditions can expose people to a range of health risks. Housing insecurity, due to lack of income or moving house because of rent, exposes a family to stress. Pollution causes many non-communicable diseases and damages respiratory and cardiovascular health. Inadequate water and sanitation services affect food safety and personal hygiene, which facilitates the transmission of various diseases.
Habitat for Humanity in the Dominican Republic currently runs three projects: housing support services, in which they help families turn their home into a lasting asset; volunteering, through which national and international building brigades have been successfully organised; and the financial services project, which seeks to give low-income families access to microcredit so they can buy a complete home, repair it or improve it. These projects represent Hábitat Dominicana’s contribution to the country in reducing vulnerabilities across different areas of Dominican society.
Find out more about Habitat for Humanity Dominican Republic at www.habitatdominicana.org or on social media @habitatdominicana