Two-month countdown to thousands of Asia’s youth building houses simultaneously on one day

Habitat For Humanity’s Youth BUILD Brings Together Over 1 Million Volunteers To Build Homes, Raise Awareness And Support

BANGKOK, 12 March 2012: Two months from today, on 12 May, thousands of young Habitat for Humanity volunteers will simultaneously build houses in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.

Habitat Youth BUILD supporters are adding ‘I am a YB supporter’ pins to their Facebook profile pictures

The Habitat Youth BUILD event will mark the culmination of several months’ hard work by hundreds of thousands of young volunteers using their social and digital networks to raise funds and draw attention to the dire housing situation in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Nearly US10,000 has been raised online already and more than 4,000 people have visited the Habitat Youth BUILD website. The initiative is growing in momentum with people using Facebook and Twitter to tell their friends about poverty housing and it is having a multiplier effect”, said Ariane Aliggayu, Habitat for Humanity’s volunteer program manager for Asia-Pacific.

“Sign up and help us reach our target of raising enough money to build 250 homes in Asia. Join our band of online supporters by signaling your support for Youth BUILD by adding an ‘I am a YB supporter’ badge to your profile picture on Facebook today.”

To sign up, start fundraising and take part in a Habitat Youth BUILD event, or for more information, visit habitatyouthbuild.org. Use #habitatyouthbuild to raise awareness online. Click here to add the ‘I am a YB supporter’ badge to your Facebook profile.

Celebrities from across the Asia-Pacific region, like China’s Jet Li and Karen Mok, India’s Aditi Rao Hydari and Omi Vaidya, Thailand’s Looksorn Bhandhukravi, and the Philippines’ Manny Pacquiao are supporting the campaign.

This is the first time that Habitat for Humanity has run a simultaneous build event across multiple countries in Asia-Pacific with all volunteers aged between 16 and 25 years old. Almost 100 people have already donated online, and hundreds more have signed up to take part in-person to build houses on 12 May 2012.