The Desmond Tutu Community Build – No More Shacks!
Help give children like this the opportunity for a better future
Join us and help build a better future for South Africans living in urban poverty
The challenge: to build 10 houses in just one week!
Saturday 6th to Sunday 14th September 2008, Cape Town, South Africa
Habitat for Humanity is looking for 10 teams of 12 people each to spend one-week building 10 homes that will change the
lives of 10 families forever. Will you join us on the Desmond Tutu Community Build for the experience of a lifetime?
Each volunteer team will work with the chosen homepartner family, who are currently living in a shack, to build their new home in just 7 days.
Help families like the Yibe's who became homeowners on the 2007 build.
All you need is the desire to make a difference and plenty of enthusiasm! No building skills are required. Working under the supervision of local trades people you could find yourself block laying, mixing mortar, roofing,
or painting. You won't be asked to do anything you feel uncomfortable doing and you will receive training each step of the way.
By sweating, laughing and working together with the new homeowners, their friends and neighbours, and other volunteers, you will accomplish this seemingly impossible task.
As the cement walls go up, other walls come crashing down – walls between language and gender, colour and culture. Most of all, you will have helped ensure that 10 families can face the Cape winter with the certainty that leaking roofs and cold winds driving through rickety shacks are a thing of the past.
South Africa
Thousands of people live in overcrowded conditions in shacks.
Nearly half the 45 million population live below the poverty line. And almost 10 million South Africans live in poverty housing – nearly 1 in 5 of the population. The housing backlog alone is estimated at 2.5 million houses. In addition to the enormous need for housing and services, rapid urbanisation and the effects of Apartheid have resulted in a fracturing of traditional structures, families and community.
Hailed as ‘the miracle nation’, South Africa made the peaceful transition from Apartheid to democratic government in the spirit of ‘unity in diversity’. Now, a new challenge is facing South Africa: the challenge to
build a brighter future and end poverty housing.
You and others in your church can help!
Get involved!
The Desmond Tutu Community Build is a great opportunity to put your faith into practical action that will make a real difference. As you demonstrate God's love to a community in need, you will experience township life, and most of all you will help a family build their new home – changing their lives forever. But there is a warning: it may change your life as well!
Trip cost
Total Cost including donation - £1895 per person
This includes international flights, 3 star accommodation (based on two twin rooms sharing one bathroom), insurance, local transport, meals as per itinerary, water, one cultural excursion, and donation (full details included in the downloadable brochure).
Interested?
To find out more, please download the
Desmond Tutu Community Build brochure (PDF 1.5MB). Use our online form to register your interest.
Go to our online form. You can also download
Desmond Tutu build FAQs (PDF 170KB).
See photos from the Desmond Tutu build 2007.
In partnership with:
