Eieio
July 28th, 2009, 04:22 PM
Habitat for Humanity‘s Women Build program a success
IAN HARVEY
correspondent
Toronto’s Women Build project for Habitat For Humanity has a lot of heart behind it.
Over the course of nine days this spring, some 1,500 volunteers set to work to build 16 homes for disadvantaged families, making it the largest effort of its kind in Canada.
The project is at Hainford Street in the Lawrence Avenue E. and Manse Road area of east Scarborough.
While the project didn’t exclude men, it was focused on women helping women and drew participants from such diverse organizations as the Canadian Association of Women in Construction (CAWIC) and female members of Toronto Police Services, who provided not just woman power but also horse power in the form of an equine flag parade to cap off the day.
Canadian soul singer Divine Brown also performed live as part of the celebrations.
The homes are part of a larger 60-unit project by WRP Neighbourhood Housing, a kindred group of women’s congregations within the Toronto Catholic Archdiocese and are expected to be finished by the end of the year.
“We’re not sure what we’re going to do next, but there were some positive responses and the event was a big success,” says Allen Davidov of Habitat for Humanity Toronto.
“We’re running women-only classes the first Monday of [each] month at Habitat University which is an education program on working on a project and the first one is already full and the notice just went out a couple of days ago.”
A volunteer at a Habitat for Humanity build in Toronto.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Retired interior designer Audrey Freidin holds a ladder for another volunteer.
Timing the building blitz to coincide with Mother’s Day didn’t hurt and Audrey Freidin, 57, a retired interior designer active in CAWIC, says her experience with the building event has made her all the more determined to sign up again and bring in colleagues from the organization.
“We were going to go down, but it came down to which day and schedules, but I went and I’m going to tell them next year, this is the day, we’re going!” she laughs.
“It was really great even though most of what I did was hold up a ladder because I was pretty much a Habitat virgin.”
Having a group of women building houses was a lot of fun, she says, and provided some moments of humour.
“Someone would come back and ask: ‘Do you have any long nails?’ ” she recalls. “And one of us would take off our work gloves and hold up our fingernails and say, ‘Are these long enough!’ ”
Puns aside, it was a good networking opportunity and Freidin says she ran into a former colleague on the site.
Getting involved in a Habitat build is more than just swinging a hammer or running a saw.
Each volunteer raises a minimum of $500 each to help pay for building materials. This project raised close to $2 million.
In addition to different organizations, mothers and daughters also chipped in to help out including single-mom and new Habitat homeowner Deserei Matthews who was working off her sweat-equity hours by working alongside hundreds of other women.
Matthews and her four children were trapped in the cycle of poverty and found escape from their old neighbourhood filled with drugs, gang violence and other negative Influences with the chance to move into a Habitat home.
Her story is not unusual among the hundreds of other families who have benefited from the program.
IAN HARVEY
correspondent
Toronto’s Women Build project for Habitat For Humanity has a lot of heart behind it.
Over the course of nine days this spring, some 1,500 volunteers set to work to build 16 homes for disadvantaged families, making it the largest effort of its kind in Canada.
The project is at Hainford Street in the Lawrence Avenue E. and Manse Road area of east Scarborough.
While the project didn’t exclude men, it was focused on women helping women and drew participants from such diverse organizations as the Canadian Association of Women in Construction (CAWIC) and female members of Toronto Police Services, who provided not just woman power but also horse power in the form of an equine flag parade to cap off the day.
Canadian soul singer Divine Brown also performed live as part of the celebrations.
The homes are part of a larger 60-unit project by WRP Neighbourhood Housing, a kindred group of women’s congregations within the Toronto Catholic Archdiocese and are expected to be finished by the end of the year.
“We’re not sure what we’re going to do next, but there were some positive responses and the event was a big success,” says Allen Davidov of Habitat for Humanity Toronto.
“We’re running women-only classes the first Monday of [each] month at Habitat University which is an education program on working on a project and the first one is already full and the notice just went out a couple of days ago.”
A volunteer at a Habitat for Humanity build in Toronto.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Retired interior designer Audrey Freidin holds a ladder for another volunteer.
Timing the building blitz to coincide with Mother’s Day didn’t hurt and Audrey Freidin, 57, a retired interior designer active in CAWIC, says her experience with the building event has made her all the more determined to sign up again and bring in colleagues from the organization.
“We were going to go down, but it came down to which day and schedules, but I went and I’m going to tell them next year, this is the day, we’re going!” she laughs.
“It was really great even though most of what I did was hold up a ladder because I was pretty much a Habitat virgin.”
Having a group of women building houses was a lot of fun, she says, and provided some moments of humour.
“Someone would come back and ask: ‘Do you have any long nails?’ ” she recalls. “And one of us would take off our work gloves and hold up our fingernails and say, ‘Are these long enough!’ ”
Puns aside, it was a good networking opportunity and Freidin says she ran into a former colleague on the site.
Getting involved in a Habitat build is more than just swinging a hammer or running a saw.
Each volunteer raises a minimum of $500 each to help pay for building materials. This project raised close to $2 million.
In addition to different organizations, mothers and daughters also chipped in to help out including single-mom and new Habitat homeowner Deserei Matthews who was working off her sweat-equity hours by working alongside hundreds of other women.
Matthews and her four children were trapped in the cycle of poverty and found escape from their old neighbourhood filled with drugs, gang violence and other negative Influences with the chance to move into a Habitat home.
Her story is not unusual among the hundreds of other families who have benefited from the program.