Habitat for Humanity Kenya
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Date
1998-09
Authors
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
When we look at the statistics about housing conditions in the world, and
especially in Africa, we wonder how it comes that the issue of shelter is generally
overlooked by the majority of the agents of development. Strange enough, despite its
implications on all the aspects of human life, shelter in seldom considered a priority.
And yet, shelter does not only mean a roof and walls, i.e. protection against rain, cold,
heat, and dust. Rather, it also provides security, privacy and space for carrying out
socio-economic activities which are necessary for survival, comfort and happiness of
human beings.2
The project we are about to illustrate deals with housing for the needy in rural
Kenya. Actually, rather than a project, it is more of a shelter ministry geared towards
integral human development. A Christian organisation, Ilabitat for Humanity
International, runs world-wide a self-help housing program in partnership with local
communities of people in need. Such a partnership is actualised through the
mediation of two other different levels of the organisation, i.e. regional (Africa and
Middle East) and national. Vision, mission, and goal are the same at all the levels, and
the partnership grants financial support; however, the program is community based,
run at the grass roots and this means a process of adaptation. During our long holidays, we had the chance to work for two months and a
half in one of these community in Kenya, namely Kirindine, which is one of the
branches of Athiru Gaiti affiliate to Habitat for Humanity Kenya. This chain of
partnerships which links the small local community to a world-wide organisation
makes it difficult to report with linearity goal, objectives, strategies, activities at
Kirindine. The question is that to understand the local project we need to present also
the policies made at national and international level, because many aspects are in
common and derived from there. Nevertheless, there is also a strong local component
that gives a peculiarity to each community. Moreover, the same case applies to the
level of Athirit Gaiti affiliate: whereas some aspects of the program are in common
between all the branches, others are very typical of each one of them.
This is why we cannot report only about what we have seen at Kirindine; it is
necessary to give an overview of all the Habitat for Humanity program.
/Thanks to the collaboration and the materials found at Habitat, our observation
wa enriched with plenty of data, analyses, insights, and explanations. So much so,
at it has been challenging to re-organise all the materials we got. The present report
owes a lot to those documents and we are extremely grateful for the openness,
transparency and sincere friendship found in the members of staff both at Kirindine
and Nairobi.
Description
Keywords
Territory, Population, Education, Economy, Development, The Need for Adequate Shelter, Religion