Year 2, Volume 2: Editorial

Since biblical times, God has blessed his people by giving them lands where they can work and live, “a land that flows with milk and honey”.

Argentines live in a spacious, fruitful and rich land, enjoying the diversity given by the glaciers in the South, the red lands in the North, the fruitful pampas in the centre: from the Rio de la Plata at sea level, to the grandeur of the Andes mountains. What more could we ask for?

But we need so much! Organizations such as ours, working to provide suitable housing for every needy Argentine family, are finding it very difficult to purchase land legally. When we launch a new project and seek to select families who will benefit from our programs, we discover anew that those who today live in unacceptable conditions do not possess land that can be mortgaged in order to back the loan which our organization gives them when we help them build a new home.

We therefore launched a new initiative entitled “Lands: Obstacles or Opportunities?”

We try to economize by building four houses on one plot but the efforts to reduce the cost are far less than the problems we have in acquiring land legally! Much of the land in the poorer, rural areas was bought and sold without any legal contracts or title deeds. As a result it is much more difficult today to acquire the land legally. For example, the municipality of Lujan put an ad in the paper asking for legalized land to enable it to carry out its social housing programme!

We thank God, however, that we have been able to overcome these obstacles in obtaining land in Santa Fe Province in Recreo and Cañada de Gómez; and in the Open Door area in the province of Buenos Aires. Today we are pleased to be able to offer the opportunity to build their own house to families who had never dreamed of joining a program of housing such as the one we offer in Habitat for Humanity! We know, however, that we must continue to strive, together with other housing organizations to seek the co-operation of the Government in simplifying procedures for buying and legalizing land in the poorer areas.

Ana Cutts

National Director

Habitat for Humanity Argentina