Dear Editor,
Habitat for Humanity Guyana is doing an exceptional job bringing families out of poverty housing and placing them in better conditions, so they would have a better quality of life.
Habitat has many volunteers, from students at university to members of business entities around the country. This is in addition to churches and overseas personnel who have enough love to make themselves available ever so often to contribute to the lives of people they don’t even know.
That’s why I think it is a shame for beneficiaries to renege on their obligation to pay for a house for which they have only been asked to contribute a small percentage in terms of labour and finance in the initial stages. They pay the remainder based on a plan that is worked out with the family before occupancy, and this is affordable by any standard. I can speak because I have been part of the Habitat efforts for many years from its inception, and I know the process thoroughly. I am certain there can be no other non-profit, non-government supported entity which has the love, care and interest in relation to housing that they have.
Habitat has no guaranteed financial base; they are supported by donors locally and overseas, and recently have been more dependent on local input because recipients have failed in a big way in their obligations. As a consequence they are robbing others of the opportunity to have better housing and a better life, which can be termed very selfish. These same recipients have been trained and taught about the workings and functions of Habitat for Humanity Guyana, and they are made aware of the revolving fund when they pay, that will give another family the blessing of a new home. I know Habitat’s repayment policy is affordable and is the best in Guyana and maybe in the world.
The beauty about Habitat is if families can’t for some reason meet their obligations, they can go into to the office and the competent staff there would listen and do all that is possible to make the task of repayment easy. No home owner in Guyana can ask for better than what is being offered by this God-sent organization which serves the people of this nation.
I view with shock the names published in some print media of those who have become delinquent, and I am sad that some of those individuals might have come to the conclusion that they will not pay for a house that they badly needed and can call their own.
Most of the delinquents are personally known to me and I was witness to their tears of joy at owning a new home. I heard the promises made not to fail the organization in terms of their obligation to pay; sadly, some have forgotten.
Maybe it is now time for government to get more intimately involved with the work of Habitat; they have proved their worth in the development of Guyana and Guyanese, and the country benefits when Habitat alleviates the situation in relation to poverty housing.
Yours faithfully,
Ivan John
