HOPE FOR HAITI

Habitat for Humanity is addressing shelter solutions for low-income families affected by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. Our assessment team is reporting from the area, and Habitat is planning how to help Haitian families repair or rebuild their homes. Please keep monitoring www.habitat.org and future e-newsletters for news of our response plans and activities.

At this time, we are not sending volunteers to Haiti. However, in order for Habitat to respond effectively to this disaster, we need volunteers like you to support our effort remotely. You can still be an enormous help to our Haitian brothers and sisters; we'd like you to become an advocate on their behalf and help Habitat for Humanity raise the resources we'll need to mount an aggressive response to the need we're seeing.

Here are some ways that you can help Habitat for Humanity respond to the early recovery needs and long-term shelter solutions for low-income families in Haiti:

• Take the Haiti volunteer interest survey. This survey will collect your demographic and basic skills information, and will sign you up for a periodic e-mail with updates regarding Habitat's response in Haiti.
• Donate to our Haiti earthquake appeal on www.habitat.org or by texting "Habitat" to 25383 to make a $10 donation to Habitat's efforts in Haiti. The donation amount will be added to your phone bill.
• Are you interested in responding to disasters domestically? Learn about Habitat's U.S. Disaster Corps and fill out the U.S. Disaster Corps interest survey.

• Continue to support Habitat in your area and communities served around the world. Visit Habitat's Get Involved page to find options.

Thank you for the outpouring of support for Haiti in the wake of this disaster. Please continue to keep those affected on your heart and check www.habitat.org for updates. Know that Habitat for Humanity is committed to serving Haitian families, as it has for over 26 years.

 

KROGER COMMUNITY REWARDS...

Kroger Community rewards is a simple way to give back to the community. Simply click on the following logo and link your Kroger Plus card to Habitat for Humanity. Then, every time you make a purchase, a percentage of the Kroger rewards will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.

 

CARS FOR HOMES 2010 NEWSLETTER...

Despite the ongoing recession, Cars for Homes™ continues to generate donations, distribute unrestricted funding to affiliates, and seek new opportunities to collaborate with our affiliate partners. This month, 481 affiliates will receive a share of the $425,587.01 in unrestricted revenue being distributed for Q1 FY10.

Sixteen states are represented on the annual list of “Top 30 Life-to-Date CFH Affiliates” included in this newsletter. Congratulations to these affiliates from across the country and thanks to all affiliates using websites, ReStores and local events to promote vehicle donations in their communities. Consider ordering CFH rack cards or NEW window clings from the Cars for Homes page in the Build Brand store to include in affiliate holiday appeal letters.

Twenty-one affiliates submitted applications to host the 2010 Cars for Homes™ Partnership Project. The selection committee was informed and inspired by each of these innovative proposals for green, sustainable, energy-efficient new and rehab projects. It is with great appreciation to all twenty-one affiliates that we announce that Habitat for Humanity East Bay in Oakland, California, will host the 2010 CFH Partnership Project. The other four finalists will receive CFH banners and $350 worth of additional CFH promotional materials to help generate more car donations to support their local sustainable building projects.

Also in this newsletter, check out the article and photos of some of the recent vehicles donated to Cars for Homes™ that were transferred to affiliates because of their greater value to affiliates as direct donations rather than as cash generated from their sale.

Best wishes,

Marcia Rundle, Director
Cars for Homes™

Read the full newsletter here...

 

WHERE HABITAT RANKS AMONG PRIVATE BUILDERS IN THE UNITED STATES

This past summer, BUILDER magazine announced its annual list of the top-100 producing home builders in the United States. Habitat for Humanity International was the year’s top private builder, with its 5,459 closings in 2008, and ranked 11th on the overall list, which includes publicly traded home builders.

WHO MADE HABITAT HOME MOVIES IN TULSA, OKLA.

This past summer, country music stars Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks helped celebrate Habitat’s National Women Build Week, which is sponsored by Lowe’s. The duo built in Tulsa, Okla., and Atlanta during the event, as volunteers fanned out to more than 200 Habitat construction sites across all 50 states. To see Yearwood and Brooks on the build site, visit Habitat YouTube channel at  www.youtube.com/user/HabitatforHumanity.

HOW HABITAT KIDS PLAY IN COLLIER COUNTY, FLA.

Best friends Sadath Jean-Pierre and Patrick Bastien, both young men whose parents own Habitat houses in Immokalee, Fla., will play college football this year. Jean-Pierre, a cornerback, began summer classes and workouts at The Citadel in South Carolina in June, and Bastien, a defensive end, begins at the University of Alabama Birmingham campus this fall.

NFL QUARTERBACK KURT WARNER JOINS
ANNUAL BUILD-A-THON IN IOWA

NFL quarterback Kurt Warner lent some muscle and some star power to the 2009 Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps Build-a-Thon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in June. Warner and his wife, Brenda, both Iowa natives, volunteered on behalf of their First Things First Foundation, in partnership with Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity.

“You’re always thinking about how you want to be remembered,” Warner says when asked what motivates his philanthropy. “The one thing I know is that all the things that happen on the field — all the accomplishments — they all come and go. But when you impact somebody’s life, it stays with them forever. And that’s the kind of legacy we want to leave.”

In addition to serving as celebrity spokespeople for the event, both Warners spent the first day of the Build-a-Thon working shoulder-to-shoulder with AmeriCorps members, partner families and other volunteers to help build houses with 20 families, several of whom lost everything in the catastrophic flooding last summer that covered more than 9 square miles of Cedar Rapids and destroyed nearly 4,000 homes.

“Habitat is always one of our favorite experiences,” Warner says. “With a lot of programs, you come in and you hope you have an impact, you hope it lasts. But when you get involved with Habitat, you’re building a home. And you know it’s going to pay dividends for a lifetime.”

When the Warners finished helping raise the walls of a Habitat house for Ashley Heinrich and her family, both took time to write notes in permanent marker on the framework of their front door, asking for blessings and protection.

“I just wrote that I hope they laugh so hard that God hears them,” says Brenda Warner. “There’s nothing better than laughter. Sometimes laughter can carry you through a flood or a tornado. It just gives me a good feeling to know that house will be filled with laughter."

FINDING HOPE

In the village of Mahitsy, Habitat for Humanity Madagascar has built 140 homes with families in need. Razanajaona Olga Harinosy lives with her husband and their three children in an immaculate, two-room house overlooking the village’s main dirt thoroughfare. While her husband works in the village as a mason and their daughters attend school, she tends to their 3-year-old son, Rahajarivola Tsiferaniaina Fleurison. “This is very different from where we were before,” says Harinosy, recalling the insecurity of a run-down rented house. “We feel very independent now. We have hope.”

Habitat Madagascar has been working in partnership with local community-based organizations since 1999 and has built more than 1,000 homes in this island nation off the eastern coast of Africa. Habitat’s program is growing exponentially here, doubling house production each year. The need, though, remains staggering. More than 70 percent of Malagasies live below the poverty level, and nearly half survive on the equivalent of US$1 a day. In addition to stepping up building, Habitat Madagascar has begun helping to create a water and sanitation infrastructure that will help lift entire communities out of desperate conditions in one of the most naturally beautiful places on Earth.