Colorado to Paraguay: An Introduction

Tomorrow forty-one Coloradoans will depart from Denver en route to Paraguay, where we will build five homes, and hopefully will build friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.

The journey began long before today.  In November of 2008, the thirty Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Colorado celebrated the 1,000th home built here in partnership with families seeking the opportunity to stabilize their housing and improve their lives.  On that day we pledged that together we would build the next 1,000 homes in just three short years - even as the economy began to falter.  Today, just past the midpoint of the 1000 Homes campaign, we have met approximately 45% of that goal.

Half a world away, Habitat for Humanity of Paraguay was undertaking a similar challenge to build 1,000 homes in a country where poverty housing has a very different and dire meaning.  Paraguay in the third poorest country in South America, and more than 1.1 million individuals suffer from extreme poverty, earning less that $1 US per day.  More than half of the houses in Paraguay are considered inadequate, and 
745,000 families in Paraguay lack decent housing.  Less than 50% of the population has access to water service, and only 34% of Paraguay's total population has access to garbage disposal - resulting in a major sanitation crisis and high infant mortality rates.  Compounding this housing crisis is a dearth of public policy supporting affordable and decent housing.  Nearly 21% of existing homes lack legal land tenure and are illegally situated in public areas such as streets, parks, riverbanks, or on the private property of a corporation.

But we have much in common with our friends in Paraguay, and we discover more each time we meet.  In Paraguay and Colorado, we know that access to safe, decent, and affordable housing has a profound impact on education, which is so critical to breaking the cycle of poverty.  In Paraguay they have made this a special ministry of theirs, and are building homes in partnership with teachers in order to integrate them with the communities they serve and ensure longer tenures and continuity in the lives of the children they teach.  Our Global Village Team will be building homes with five teachers, including Zila and Roberto, who recorded this message for us: 

Zila's story is like so many stories we have heard in Colorado - even my own.  My parents were both teachers, and collectively dedicated nearly 70 years to public education.  Homeownership was highly valued by my family, and was a dream of mine as I built a family - a dream I was able to realize.  Zila and I are the same age, and we each have two children.  What else will we have in common?  As we carry bricks and cement together, and share a cup of terere after a hard day's work, I hope to discover much more.

I hope you'll join us on our journey of discovery by following this blog.  Each day, a different team member will give their unique personal perspective, and share photos and video taken along the way.  You can participate by commenting and asking questions, and by sharing the blog with your friends.  Please keep our team in your thoughts and prayers, that we may be safe, healthy, and forever changed as we change the lives of five families on the other side of the world.

Stefka Czarnecki Fanchi

Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity of Colorado