Corporate News

Stephen George & Partners

Today, social responsiblity for a business goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past – donating money to good causes at the end of the year – and is instead an all year round responsibility that we must accept for the environment around us, for the best working practices and for our engagement with the local and world communities.”

These words from David Taylor, Senior Partner of Stephen George & Partners, went with the recent team of SGP volunteers who went to South Africa to build safe, decent and appropriate homes for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). Inspired by the work Habitat for Humanity does with AIDS Orphans, the recent team was one of many that will come from SGP as part of the firm’s three year partnership with HFH. Stephen George & Partners has already sent teams to serve vulnerable children in Eshowe and Ntshongweni, South Africa, with another team scheduled for July 2009.

Visa Team Perform at HFH Liverpool

HFH Liverpool recently hosted a team of nine from Visa Europe’s Central Account Team for Growth and Emerging Markets.

The ‘Teams That Perform’ teambuilding course encourages team members to understand colleagues’ personalities and skills while optimising communication with each other. This is achieved with a mix of personality analysis and practical, hands-on team building exercises.

A gentle introduction to building was achieved on the first day by getting the Visa team working together on a simulation of building a Habitat for Humanity home in the developing world. On day two, the team’s teamwork and

communications skills were given a tougher test as they were set to work on the HFH Liverpool build site in Toxteth – the team did a superb job, completing the batoning of three houses within one working day.

Martin Ten Houten of Visa Europe said of the Teams That Perform course, “…this was a superb experience. It allowed us to get to know each other a lot better and break down misunderstandings of how we interpret our colleagues and work to optimum effect as a team... I would recommend this course to any team that is new in the make up of its staff, are having communication challenges or are simply looking for a great way to learn more about themselves through helping others.”

The Citi Foundation Financial Literacy Project

Support for the work of Habitat for Humanity can come in many shapes and forms – individuals writing cheques, leaving legacies or raising money from their community, through to corporate partners sending out teams of volunteers to build alongside homepartner families all over the world.

But our long-time corporate partner, the Citi Foundation, has added a new way of supporting the work of Habitat for Humanity with a means of supporting us that fits perfectly with the Citi Foundation’s area of expertise… the world of finance.

When dealing with people who live in poverty, a key issue can be their ability to pay back the cost of the house so that we can recycle the funding to build more homes in their community.

Over the next three years, the Citi Foundation will fund a major financial education and training programme across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The programme will directly train around 10,000 – 12,000 Habitat for Humanity homepartners in financial literacy. By helping homepartners to take better control of their finances, Habitat for Humanity and the Citi Foundation aim to make the home repayment process easier to budget.

Better repayment rates mean that local Habitat for Humanity organisations will be able to reach out to even more families.

As well as funding the financial literacy programme for homepartners, the Citi Foundation is working with Habitat for Humanity to develop a range of financial savings and loan products. This will broaden and deepen Habitat for Humanity’s impact by enabling us to reach out to at least 5,000 more people on lower incomes who would otherwise be unable to build with us.

Finally, around 200 Habitat for Humanity staff and volunteers will be trained in financial literacy, so that they can go on to train our homepartners in the future. This will also place them in a position where they are better able to develop future financial products themselves. In doing so, we will meet the needs of more people in need of a safe, decent, Habitat for Humanity home.

Our thanks go out to the Citi Foundation for all their tremendous support and we look forward to rolling out the Financial Literacy Project over the coming months.

Corporate teams run Bath Half Marathon for
Habitat for Humanity

Twenty-four runners from three corporate teams took up the challenge of competing in the Bath Half Marathon to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity.

Teams from North Somerset Housing, Connaught and Mouchel were among 15,000 other runners from all over the country who took part in the 13-mile race on 16 March.

Despite a delayed start due to the extremely wet conditions, spirits were not dampened and the first Habitat for Humanity runner, Patrick Gaskins from Connaught, finished the course in an impressive 1 hour and 21 minutes.

Two of the Mouchel runners, Eric Downey and Robert Pringle, were only 3 minutes behind him. John Hobbs was first in for North Somerset Housing in 2 hours 8 minutes.

Sponsorship money is still being counted, though the early signs are that over £4,700 has been raised by the teams already. These impressive funds will alleviate the suffering caused by poverty housing in the world, by providing Habitat for Humanity homes for those in great need.