Habitat for Humanity and Sunsplash Homes Housing for Displaced Families in Maharashtra India.

Habitat for Humanity campaigns for a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live. We want to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the face of the world. So far in our work we have enabled over 300,000 homes to be built in around 100 countries, providing more than 1.5 million people with safe, decent, affordable shelter.

We are best known for our programmes where we provide a hand up, not a hand out – our homepartners are generally required to pay back the cost of building their home (a low cost non profit microfinance solution keeps costs to a minimum whilst still ensuring that repayments account for inflation). These funds are recycled into the local community to help build further homes. In these projects, those who qualify (our ‘homepartners’) must give what they can in the form of up to 500 hours of their own labour (a concept we term ‘sweat equity’) to build their own homes and others in the community. This in turn leads to pride of ownership and improved community cohesion.

With the combined help of Sunsplash Homes and Delta Air Lines Habitat for Humanity India has been able to begin a project in the Pune District of Maharashtra where over 41,000 people have been displaced from their homes due to the construction of a number of irrigation dams within the area.

Two thirds of India’s 1.1 billion population live in rural areas such as Maharashtra, with 260 million people living below the poverty line, earning just $1/day, this makes India home to 22% of the world’s poorest people.

Additionally the displacement of these families means their traditional income streams and social networks have been lost which has resulted in a weakened community. Through the generosity of Sunsplash Homes and Delta Air Lines, Habitat for Humanity is able to work with two communities affected by the building of dams in the Pune District of Maharashtra. The majority of people living in poverty in India are from tribal, low caste communities and therefore have high levels of illiteracy, no assets or financial resources and no access to healthcare and social services. They live in dilapidated housing with mud floors, no secure foundations and walls made of reeds or mud. These living conditions trap families in a cycle of poverty that is near impossible to break out of without assistance.

To add to the hardships these families face many tribal people are often displaced by the building of dams and other developmental projects in the areas in which they live. Maharashtra is no exception and the state has recently undertaken a number of irrigation projects that have displaced large numbers of tribal and low caste families.

In response to the displacement of these families the Indian Government has provided a plot of land near to the dam for the community to resettle their families and construct their houses; however the majority of the families are not able to afford to construct their own decent, secure home and are living in makeshift huts and shelters and some families have been moved to over 40km away from their original homes.

Project Background

With funding from Sunsplash Homes and Delta Airlines the programme began in October 2008, the whole project will cost a total of $143,000, $110,000 has been donated by Sunsplash Homes and Delta Air Lines ($10k Sunsplash $100k Delta) with the additional $133k sourced from local funders.

The goal of this project is to provide 97 families within the district with access to simple, decent affordable housing. HFHI will partner with the National Institute of Sustainable Development (NISD) to reach this goal.

The project will have additional benefits; active participation by the community in the building of their own homes (‘sweat equity’) will be seen, leading to greater community cohesion and reforming of those community networks that were lost in the displacement. Through working with NISD homepartners will have access to training in local construction techniques using local materials and in turn boosting the local economy and creating employment opportunities. Finally the project will also create a revolving community fund through the homepartners repayment of their homeowner loans. This money will be fed back in to the community creating a fund to enable more families to build a better home.

Project Update

With the funding from Sunsplash Homes alone Habitat for Humanity India are able to provide 9 displaced families (approximately 45 people) with a safe, decent and affordable home. These 9 houses are under construction at present and the table below shows the project objectives, outcomes and progress to date that we have achieved with the generosity of Sunsplash homes.

Objective
Expected Result Progress to date

1

Assist 9 displaced families to
live in simple and decent
homes.

Improved living and housing
conditions for 9 families and
thus impacting the lives of 45
people in Pune and
Ahemadnagr District.
Constructions of 9 houses are
in progress.

2

Promote appropriate local
construction technology and
housing solutions through
training and capacity building.

Project will demonstrate how
community centred approaches
in social housing can multiply
the impact of development
through the active engagement
of local design, local skills,
local material, and local
volunteers.
All 9 homeowners have been
orientated about construction
technology and the use of
low cost local technology and
materials

3

Seek active participation of
home owners in the building
process of their homes by
contributions through “Sweat
Equity”

Project will educate the
homeowners on savings and
sweat-equity through their
active involvement.
Homeowners have been
trained and motivated about
importance of saving and
providing sweat-equity. All 9
families are working and
helping masons during
construction

4

Creating a community revolving
fund through the establishment
of a repayment mechanism.

Project will result in creation of
a revolving fund out of the loan
repaid to Habitat, by the
homeowners, for building new
houses for the other needy
families.
All the 9 families are ready to
repay the loan which will go
towards the creation of
revolving fund to build more
houses.

Within the wider project Habitat for Humanity India are currently building 25 homes for families in this region, with a total of 125 people served to date. A further 72 houses will be constructed between now and October 2009 reaching our project goal of 97 houses constructed and 485 people served through this pilot programme.

The photographs below show the homes in the Maharashtra District under construction

	Objective	Expected Result	Progress to date
1	Assist 9 displaced families to live in simple and decent homes.	Improved living and housing conditions for 9 families and thus impacting the lives of 45 people in Pune and Ahemadnagr District.	Constructions of 9 houses are in progress.
2	Promote appropriate local construction technology and housing solutions through training and capacity building.	Project will demonstrate how community centred approaches in social housing can multiply the impact of development through the active engagement of local design, local skills, local material, and local volunteers.	All 9 homeowners have been orientated about construction technology and the use of low cost local technology and materials
3	Seek active participation of home owners in the building process of their homes by contributions through “Sweat Equity”	Project will educate the homeowners on savings and sweat-equity through their active involvement.	Homeowners have been trained and motivated about importance of saving and providing sweat-equity. All 9 families are working and helping masons during construction
4	Creating a community revolving fund through the establishment of a repayment mechanism.	Project will result in creation of a revolving fund out of the loan repaid to Habitat, by the homeowners, for building new houses for the other needy families.	All the 9 families are ready to repay the loan which will go towards the creation of revolving fund to build more houses.