Habitat for Humanity Chairman Alex Graham recently called on businesses to make building material more affordable for low-income earners.
The occasion was the handing over of keys to a newly constructed house to an East Coast Demerara family. The house was built through a partnership between Habitat for Humanity Guyana (HFHG) and Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) Group. At the same time, two other initiatives to support the non-governmental organisation were also set up.
According to a press release from HFHG Omattie Persaud and her family, of Courabane Park, Annandale, received the keys to their home during a short handing over ceremony, on February 27. Officials also lauded the partnership between the HFHG/TCL Group and inaugurated the HFHG House Plus Club.
TCL Guyana Inc Plant Manager Mark Bender said, “ceremonies like this, give you an opportunity to do more than just provide a service or sell a product.” Bender assured the audience that the company was committed to a continuing relationship with HFHG, which was first established in 2004. He said the company aims to help to create improved living standards for less fortunate citizens.
Graham said a house provides more than shelter, but a place where a family can have security which will allow them to thrive in other areas of their lives. He said other agencies need to partner with HFHG as the challenges are “not getting any smaller, [they are] larger on a constant and ongoing basis.” Graham also said that Habitat “hopes to do another forty or fifty houses before June.” He said HFHG “is still only scratching the surface, given the number of people living in substandard conditions.” The chairman also observed that there is need for advocates to find ways of increasing pressure to make more land available and to put pressure on the commercial and official legislative sectors to make building materials available at prices that low-income earners can afford.
Chief Executive Officer at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) in Ministry of Housing and Water Myrna Pitt lauded TCL’s commitment to improving living conditions here. She also recalled the fertile partnership between the CH&PA and HFHG where more than 300 homes were built on land the authority had acquired. Pitt also lauded the “significant contribution” other partners have since made to make “simple, decent and affordable housing.”
HFHG Community Mobilisation Co-ordinator Remington Nelson recognised donors who had contributed, in cash or kind, to the building of at least one house during the last calendar year through the House Plus Club initiative. Nelson named the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) as a major donor. He also said Money Gram International, Chevron West Indies Limited and the TCL group were the first inductees into the club. Nelson said Habitat is not a “handout” but a “hand-up” that dignifies the home-partner and promotes the ideal ownership. He also said, in the release, that Habitat is needed because “we don’t just build houses, we build lives; we build communities; we build hope.”
Habitat has contributed to housing approximately 1200 persons.
Attendees at the ceremony also included TCL Group Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Manager Alan Nobie, HFHG former National Chairman; National Committee Member Fitzpatrick Alert, HFHG founder-member and National Committee Volunteer Stanley Ming, other representatives from the TCL Group, Courts Guyana the Mon Repos Neighbourhood Democratic Council and GT&T.