Year 3, Volume 2: From Northern Ireland to Santa Fe

During this last month I had the chance, together with Nils Dickoff (German volunteer at HFHA), to be the local leader of a Global Village Team from Northern Ireland.

After weeks of careful planning, and a growing sense of expectation mixed with enthusiasm and nervousness, we finally received our volunteers! The team was made up of nine young women and four young men, including a married couple, all of whom could barely hide their excitement and eagerness to start building. The same day they arrived at the airport, the group had their welcome and orientation meeting at our National Office in Buenos Aires, travelled to Santa Fe and wasted no time in going to the construction site.

We shared a total of seven days building in Recreo together with the HFHA families, neighbours and builders. The team worked very hard, and was always willing to learn new tasks. The volunteers´ building skills improved day by day, and by the end of the sojourn all of them seemed almost like professional builders. I was specially impressed by one of the volunteers, Christopher, a 21 year old construction worker, who with infinite patience, humility and simplicity, taught and helped each of his teammates to accomplish the different tasks required.

The Bible says that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and with each passing day I was able to appreciate the truth of this statement. The beneficiary families constantly asked us to tell the volunteers how grateful and touched they were by their help. The families were interested in getting to know each of the volunteers, asked their names, what their country was like, and insisted on sharing a “mate” with “tortas fritas” or biscuits. The language difference imposed no obstacle for the conveyance of solidarity, care for others, and putting love into action.

But, not everything was work… We also had lots of fun! At the end of the first day the Santa Fe office organized a typical argentine “asado” or barbecue. We had folklore music and dancing, and the team taught us traditional Irish songs. The last day all of us played an exciting football match: families, builders, neighbours and volunteers formed a truly international team!

The team from Northern Ireland lived the experience of a lifetime, and took special memories back home. They were able to learn about Argentina, our customs and traditions. They became aware of the dire living conditions in which many poor argentine families live, but were also able to experience the satisfaction of truly making a difference. On a personal level, one of the greatest gifts left behind by this team is the certainty that the satisfaction felt by helping others transcends differences in culture, nationality or language, and is equally enhancing for everyone.

Thank you for this space.

Marcelo Ortelli

Department of Volunteers and Work Teams

National Office

Year 3, Volume 2: National Office: Annual Dinner

The Annual fund-raising dinner was held on June 8th in the Sheraton Hotel’s elegant Retiro Hall.

The Master of Ceremony was Pancho Ibáñez and we were pleased to welcome a number of distinguished guests. Cargill Foundation, Shell, Pan American Energy, Citibank Argentina and Jempsa generously sponsored the event.

The evening included a Silent Auction in a festive atmosphere with the Jazz Band, and the “A House for a House” challenge, where miniature bricks and other parts of a house were sold to raise enough money to finance a real house.

An enthusiastic group of 63 volunteers from Australia, France, Germany, United States, Santa Fe, Luján, Buenos Aires and from St. George’s North School and Saint John’s School, wearing helmets and carrying pails full of bricks, sold and built our miniature house!

The evening ended with a Tango show before the floor was opened for dancing.

Those of us who work with Habitat for Humanity Argentina feel really satisfied with the results of this event. We think we have been able to establish contacts between the guests, companies and volunteers. Everyone who participated of this event was able to obtain a vision of the housing problems in Argentina, and to understand the work Habitat for Humanity does with families.

As one of our guests said: “Habitat for Humanity Argentina does what lots of us would like to do, but are not able to do by ourselves…Thank you for encouraging us to help!”

Year 3, Volume 2: Editorial

Volunteers are so very important to Habitat for Humanity Argentina’s mission! They add to our daily tasks with their enthusiasm, commitment, interest and hard work, and bring alive our “More than Houses” programme. As we reach out to families in need of walls and roofs we also pray that we are bringing them hope and a chance to improve their lives in every aspect.

This Newsletter is a special recognition to all those volunteers who have and are helping Habitat for Humanity Argentina in so many different ways… and particularly to those silent, “unsung volunteers” who help regularly with routine office work or in their professional capacity.

We thank God for the help of all our volunteers and pray that He will bless each and every one of them.

Ana Cutts

National Director

Year 2, Volume 2: NEWS IN BRIEF

Triangle of Churches: Since July, in the Luján Affiliate, the project “Triángulo con Iglesias” has been developing with the financial and prayerful help of people from the Anglican Cathedral of Buenos Aires and Holywell Parish Church in Cambridge, England.

The general idea of the project is that children and neighbors of the owners of the “Proyecto Tierras en Open Door” have a space where they are provided with educational and recreational activities, helping them to understand the value of their new home. This project is bringing the largest group amongst our beneficiaries, the children, closer to the heart of our mission.

Corporate Campaign to support the Lands Project: Thanks to the generous support of the volunteer María Marta Oliver, all the profits and subscriptions from a breakfast in the Marriott Plaza Hotel on August 10th were donated to the “Lands Project”. Many well-known people came to breakfast including Carolina Patrón Costas from the Australian Embassy, Constanza Gorleri from Banco Galicia, and the lawyers Gabriel Badino, Elena Riera from Maersk, Julián Ferrer of Cargill and Carolina Montera from the Fundation Creer y Crecer. José Colacilli, President of the National Board and Ana Cutts, National Director, explained the concepts of the campaign.

Join E. LI .CA!: Thanks to the new group of volunteers E.LI.CA. (Team of House Leaders) we are improving our local teams. The Rotary International Peace Scholars in Lujan and the Anglican Church of Buen Pastor in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, have already been out to Lujan to help build under the efficient coordination of ELICA.

Anyone who would like to join this team of House Leaders please write to to Ariel Sosa: arielalejandrososa@yahoo.com.ar

LOOKING FORWARD

Coming Soon: A special edition of the News Bulletin about the Leaders’ Conference of Habitat for Humanity Latinoamérica and the Caribeean held in San José Costa Rica in August, and about the events which followed in New York organized by Argentine volunteers.

Dates to remember:

▫ 6^th October: Event for the closing of the “Campaña Corporativa del Proyecto Tierras” in Recreo, Santa Fe.

▫ 10^th October: Annual meeting of HPHA.

Year 2, Volume 2: LUJAN AFFILIATE: International Brigades

Putney Brigade in Torres

Only three days after accepting an internship as house leader I realized that this was going to be more than a professional challenge. Today, after sharing 10 days in the Putney Team I can say that it has been an incredible experience, surpassing all my expectations.

It was the first project of Habitat in my small village, Torres (district of Luján, Buenos Aires) where one of the requirements was that the beneficiary family had its own land.

The Putney team was made up of 18 American teenagers, and it was coordinated by Melany (American) and Mikael (Brasilian), both of whom had come to Argentina to collaborate with Habitat’s program.

Many of them had participated in Habitat’s program in different parts of the world, but for us it was the first time that we worked with an international group of volunteers.

On Monday 5th July, we visited the land where the house of Guido and Iván was being built. After introducing the family and welcoming the group, we began building. It was an incredible sensation seeing them at work...

These teenagers, from much wealthier backgrounds than our own were very enthusiastic and keen to do whatever they were told to do! And their only reward would be to see the completed house. Seeing this behavior and their easy relationship with the beneficiary Miranda family which had begun only a few days before, I wondered about our own Argentine backgrounds and values...

I would also like to take this opportunity to invite you all to help us. You don’t need skills to do so, all you need is faith, enthusiasm and dedication. Then we shall reach our goals! Your small effort means a whole lot to a family in need of a home.

Verónica Leone

Responsable for Local Brigades

Luján Affiliate- Habitat for Humanity Argentina

Year 2, Volume 2: SANTA FE AFFILIATE: The Lands Project in Recreo

The transformation of one community

Last May in the city of Recreo, a province of Sante Fe, the Lands Project began and it has since developed well, giving great satisfaction. It has been transforming the lives of 7 families, offering them not only the possibility of owning their own home and land, but also the possibility of learning what it means to have a real sense of community.

We have been much helped in developing this project by the cooperation the Municipality. Its predisposition to collaborate with the work of Habitat for Humanity. Our preliminary discussions with them, and their advice, helped us very much and we were delighted to be offered very cheap land in a great location! Moreover, the Municipality provided us with “Housing managers”, from the social plan, as well as night watchmen, tools and equipment, teams of volunteers and structures to enable us to teach and train the beneficiary families.

We are very encouraged when new volunteers join us each day to help develop this project. This also re-enforces the efforts of Recreo’s inhabitants to develop their community. Within the context of tasks corresponding to the periods of pre-construction and construction, we were pleased to see different sectors of the community participating. Volunteers from a local church entertained the children with new activities; a 10-year old girl also helped by teaching other children how to make handicrafts that will later on be donated to the local subsidiary of HPHA in order to help raise funds.

The fruit of the community engagement and the reciprocal helping work done by HPHA is expressed by the testimony of Ana Müller (a beneficiary): “Before, if something bad happened to one of my neighbors I would – to be honest –not be interested, but after participating in the tasks that Habitat for Humanity Argentina gave me for beneficiary families, where we had the opportunity to get to know the other beneficiary families, we understood that we could transform our lives by working together in community, I felt that if today something happened to a child of another family, it would hurt me a lot. Moreover, I am more aware that the problems of other families’ teenagers may also be those of my children in the future and I can learn from their experience and share prevention ideas for the well-being of all.”

We are convinced that the effects that our project had on the Recreo’s locality will bring us the real possibility for collaboration in the construction of not only homes but also of a community that brings back the hope for living in worthy conditions.

Please join us in this challenge to develop Recreo!

Erika Amsler

Social Worker

Santa Fe Afiliate – Habitat for Humanity Argentina

Year 2, Volume 2: National Office: TESTIMONY OF ONE VOLUNTEER: María Viegas

More than a year ago, I saw in a weekly architecture and building magazine an advertisement from Habitat for Humanity, that touch a personal fibre. The advertisement explained what it was doing in Argentina and encouraged anyone who wanted to contribute to its work to join.

It had been a few years since the “whirlpool” of daily life had caught me: family, work, survival, etc. were some of the excuses I used not to consider getting involvemed! However, this article opened the door to a new reality. My children were already grown-up, my work set on the right road, and I realized it was time for me to return everything that LIFE had generously given me.

This was an opportunity! My skills and experience could be utilized in helping those who needed a hand... a roof… a smile... or just some encouragement

I called to discuss the idea and was invited to attend a workshop to learn what it means to be a volunteer and how Habitat and Save the Children work!

It was a day full of new meanings for me and with all my heart I took it upon myself to make my contribution to the organization.

At first, it was somewhat hard to find my place. I passed through different stages, meetings and joined in celebrations to inaugurate the first completed homes!

Everything was new and exciting for me, but I felt more like a visitor than a real helper. Months went by and my desire to be more effective was growing and I learned to appreciate the value of technical assistance and began to feel that my contribution was indeed useful and valued. A group of professionals began to meet to contribute, we have found our place and started to see the results! Our work meetings became more worthwhile and we could help the Affiliates as they needed our help. We organized exchange workshops with them and I began to gain more confidence.

I was also encouraged to be a “House Leader” which meant going with volunteers to the construction site in Luján, explaining Habitat’s methodology to them, and coordinating their days work.

This is what I liked the most because it meant being with the people, with the beneficiaries, getting to know and understand them, their needs, their sorrows and joys, their surprise and their grateful incredulity!!

After days on the work site, the soul relaxes in a worn out body, and the word HOME sounds like glory!! Thank you Habitat for giving me the opportunity to share, learn, give and receive!

María Viegas

Volunteer-Technical Assistance Team

National Office- Habitat for Humanity Argentina