By Kate Courter, Resources Development VISTA
This year Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery and Delaware Counties is honored to participate in Habitat for Humanity International’s 13th official Women Build week. In the week leading up to International Women’s Day Habitat affiliates across the country and the world will be calling on women to raise a hammer to highlight the need for safe and affordable housing.
Despite women earning more higher education degrees than men, we continue to earn $.80 for every dollar men earn. This disparity has a greater effect on single mothers, 29% of whom live beneath the poverty line. Homes owned by women are also worth on average 10 percent less than homes owned by men and depreciate 16 percent faster. At Habitat we know that homeownership is one of the best ways to stabilize finances, build equity, and create generational wealth that gives parents and children the secure foundation to achieve anything. Women Build week is dedicated to empowering women homeowners while giving women the ability to serve each other.
Women Build began in 1991 in Charlotte, North Carolina when a group of women completed the first entirely women-built Habitat for Humanity house. Similar projects sprang up across the country. In 1997, as part of the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton, Kentucky first lady Libby Jones and Oklahoma first lady Cathy Keating participated in a Women Build which kicked off Habitat’s First Ladies Build. In 1998 HFHI officially adopted Women Build as an official global initiative dedicated to bringing women-only crews to build sites to serve and learn. The projects expanded again in 2009 with the start of Women Build week. No longer was Women Build simply about women in pink t-shirts showing they could raise walls too, but part of a greater dialogue surrounding economic inequality in housing.
This year, approximately 6,000 women volunteers will unite in more than 235 communities in the United States, India and Canada with the goal to build and improve 540 homes while raising awareness of housing issues facing women and their families. The program continues to grow across international borders, empowering women everywhere to address poverty housing for themselves, their families and their neighbors. Dozens of international Women Builds have taken place, and the program aims to direct financial assistance to women-led projects worldwide.
At Habitat MontDelco we are thrilled to be taking part in this global event that brings awareness to the injustices women continue to face in our communities. We hope you will join us for this week of education, service, and empowerment.
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