Spring 1999 Newsletter | |||||
| Last Update: April, 1999
SHfH Sends Help to Hurricane Victims Each year, Seattle Habitat tithes 15% of all undesignated donations to Habitat for Humanity International. In 1997 and 1998, the undesignated donations totaled over $85,000.00. During this time, these funds were designated to build 23 homes in Brazil, 14 homes in Malawi, and now homes in Honduras and Nicaragua. On November 15, 1998, our affiliate held its fourth annual Auction and raised $50,000. Following this successful auction, the Board of Directors elected to direct a 15% tithe from the event to the Hurricane Mitch ravaged countries of Honduras and Nicaragua. This tithe of $7,500 will be used to build and rebuild homes in Honduras and Nicaragua where the average cost of a home is only $1,850. Last fall's devastating storms in Central America turned Habitat homes into places of refuge and demonstrated that simple, decent housing is a matter of life and death. Habitat's national offices reported that not one Habitat homeowner family was killed. Of the nearly 7,000 Habitat homes in the affected countries, six were washed away in a mud-slide, one was buried, and two others were seriously damaged. When the River Chamelecon overflowed its banks, families in one Habitat Honduras affiliate had no time to evacuate. They climbed onto their sheet-metal roofs and waited to be rescued. Some waited as long as eight days. Although the river washed away all of their belongings, their houses are still standing. In a Dominican Republic village where Hurricane George ripped through town, a nearby river overflowed its banks. Families climbed onto the roofs of the Habitat homes where they waited for four days. Four babies were born on the rooftops during that time! "Like so many people in the United States, the members of the Board wanted to reach out to our neighbors in Nicaragua and Honduras and help them rebuild their lives," stated Kathryn Kurtz, President, Board of Directors SHfH. | ||||