First Fruits Of 150-house Project In Rajasthan, India

Latest Tie Up With Discipleship Center

Two hands make light work: staff from HRC Delhi lay the foundation for a simple, decent home

High energy labor: high school students from the Shriram School in Delhi sweat it out for Habitat

DELHI, 20th November 2006: Three families and the community from a village in northwestern India recently worked alongside Habitat for Humanity volunteers to build for themselves simple, decent and affordable homes.

Over one weekend in November, two parallel builds took place in the Dausa district of Rajasthan.

In the first build, 24 high school students from Shriram School, Delhi, toiled under the desert sun to carry and lay heavy rocks and mixed mortar to help two homes for two brothers, Mukesh and Shri Ram Meena.

When asked about their experience, 17-year-old volunteer Aakriti said “My father would be so proud of me if he saw what I am doing.”

At another build, 12 staff from the Habitat Resource Centre in Delhi lived up to their Habitat mission by laying the foundations for a house which would eventually be a home to farmer and casual laborer Sampat Ram Sharma, his wife and three daughters.

Fifteen-year old Lalitha, the eldest sister, sported a confident smile on her face when asked if she was looking forward to living in her new house. She replied, “With all this hard work being put in to it, it is impossible for me to not like it.”

Dausa, which lies in eastern Rajasthan, is a semi-arid region with barren land due to scanty, low and uncertain rainfall.

These builds in the Dausa district are part of a 150-house project launched in 2006 in partnership with the Discipleship Centre Insert link to October 19, 2006 story – Habitat’s home repairs project brings hope to slum resident in Delhi. Together, Habitat and the Centre are also undertaking a Save & Repair project in Madanpur Khadar, outside Delhi and rebuilding in earthquake and tsunami-disaster areas.