Dear Editor,
Permit me a few lines to express profound gratitude on behalf of the Board, management, staff and homepartners of Habitat for Humanity Guyana Inc (HFH Guyana ) for continuous support of several local and international private sector organizations who have exemplified social responsibility and concern for the housing needs of poor families in Guyana.
For HFH Guyana, our sponsors and homepartners achieving the dream of home ownership goes beyond the construction of four walls and a roof or the provision of repairs, renovation and extensions. Affordable and decent home ownership for poor families is an opportunity to elevate a family out of poverty, to provide an environment conducive to studying for young children and to ensure that the homes we construct promote health and general well-being. Research has shown that promoting access to adequate housing among low income populations is a simple yet effective strategy of poverty reduction and livelihood improvement.
Guided by our housing quality standards which are performance measurements and indicators for our construction process, HFH Guyana is committed to ensuring that access to housing finance and quality housing construction are accessible to families in need, regardless of their socio-economic status. Although Guyana has seen an increase in home ownership and land distribution for housing development, many entities along the value chain are profit oriented, thus final costs for low income families remain prohibitive. In many cases securing financing for low income families is itself prohibitive since many may not have the necessary paperwork and meet prerequisite conditionalities.
HFH Guyana is currently revising our programme model to better serve families living in relative and extreme poverty.
Yours faithfully,
Rawle Small
