All-Women Team From UAE Helps Build Two Houses in Vietnam

Sponsored by PepsiCo, 12 Students Worked With Habitat Families In My Tho City, Tien Giang Province

MY THO, 9th July 2009: An all-women team from the United Arab Emirates fulfilled several objectives when they built with Habitat for Humanity in Vietnam’s Tien Giang province.

The volunteers from United Arab Emirates trying their hand at painting a door (above) and laying bricks (below) at a build site in My Tho city, Tien Giang province.

Sponsored by PepsiCo International, the 12 students from the Sharjah Women’s Higher College of Technology made the three-day trip to My Tho city to gain a better understanding of global issues and the needs of people who are living in poverty. Tackling a variety of tasks from laying bricks to painting doors, the students worked alongside Habitat families to help build two houses.

“Building with Habitat in Vietnam gave our students a unique opportunity of being directly involved in humanitarian work globally and helping to spread the goodwill of the United Arab Emirates,” said team leader Linda Habibi, a coordinator from the college’s business faculty.

“We loved building homes for two poor families in My Tho and they will always be close to our hearts. This experience has made our students more socially responsible and committed to a lifetime of community involvement, both globally and at home,” added Habibi.

Since 2006, PepsiCo International has been sponsoring Emirati students on Habitat trips to help families in need in developing countries. In 2006, PepsiCo paid for a trip to Jordan; in 2007, to Egypt and to South Africa in 2008.

In addition to the Habitat build, the UAE students visited various historical and cultural sites in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi as well as toured PepsiCo’s bottling factory. In Hanoi, Emirati student also visited education ministry and met the deputy director of the international cooperation department.