Guest speaker gives update on Habitat's work in Argentina

from the Pocono Record

By Andrew Scott

In a country where four out of every 10 families are forced to live on less than $50 a month in one-room tin shacks and children miss school after it rains because the dirt roads are too muddy to walk on, how do people find hope for the future?

One way is through building new homes for themselves, with the help of small no-interest loans and learning to keep and maintain their homes and budget both for living expenses and paying back those loans. Those payments go to help other families build homes.

Habitat for Humanity's sister affiliate in Argentina has been giving people in that country the opportunity to do all this since 2004.

"It boosts self-esteem when people can say, 'Now I'm not so poor because I can help another family,'" Ana Cutts, national director of Habitat for Humanity Argentina, told members of the Monroe County Habitat for Humanity affiliate during a Thursday visit at East Stroudsburg United Methodist Church.

This was Cutts' first visit to the sponsoring affiliate in Monroe County, which tithes donations it receives to the Argentina affiliate.

Founded in the U.S. in the 1970s, Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization, helps struggling, low-income families build affordable housing for themselves. Families are given loans which, when paid back, go into a fund to help other families build affordable homes.

Habitat now has affiliates in Third World countries such as Argentina, where the work it does is most needed. Affiliates function on community donations and, if in poorer countries, tithes from sponsoring sister affiliates.

Cutts on Thursday presented a certificate of appreciation to Douglas Freeman, president of the Monroe County affiliate.

"Argentina is a country of contrasts, rich vs. poor," Cutts said. "The poverty is growing and worsening (especially in light of crises like the devaluing of the country's currency in 2001 and the current farmers' strike). Families living in shacks eat at soup kitchens, churches or wherever else they can find food.

"Out of all the Latin American countries, Argentina has the third-highest need for adequate housing for its poor," she said, showing a short film featuring families' grateful reactions to Habitat's work there.

Habitat provides families with small loans, each ranging from $1,000 to $1,500, and has each family take part in building their new home. One-room tin shacks are replaced by one- or two-bedroom homes, built from square-meter concrete panels, with kitchens and dining and living rooms.

Habitat's More Than Houses program teaches families:

* Financial literacy, which involves budgeting and deciding what expenses (such as toys or snacks) to cut.
* Legal literacy to avoid mistakes like signing away home ownership.
* "Little Bricks," an effort that lets the children do presentations on what they've learned about the responsibilities of having a new home.

So far, Habitat has helped 397 families in Argentina and plans to help even more, Cutts said.

The other benefit is building relations between the families and Habitat volunteers from the U.S. helping them.

"People in Argentina tend to have a negative view of Americans," Cutts said. "But when they see these Americans coming there to help them, they connect with them as fellow human beings, regardless of whatever their politics may be.

"This goes hand in hand with changing Argentina's view of its poor," she said. "Not all poor people are criminals. Many obey the law, have jobs and do the best they can to raise their children to have morals and values, despite the conditions under which they live."

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