When: Spring Break March 2008
Length of time in Guatemala: 10 days
The College of Business offers a 3 credit Service Learning Project with Habitat for Humanity's International Global Village program. This program is a short-term home building project that develops cross-cultural understanding and increases awareness for the need for simple, decent, affordable shelter for all people. To earn course credit, students are required to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Cincinnati for one Saturday, volunteer in Guatemala for one week and complete various academic assignments.
Guatemala is a Spanish speaking country located in Central America. It is a country of dramatic contrasts from active volcanos to beaches, impressive ruins of Mayan temples to Spanish colonial towns. In November 1999, Guatemala held its first peacetime elections in nearly 40 years. Today it is a constitutional democratic republic.
5 million without a decent place to live
The housing deficit in Guatemala has grown to approximately 1,021,592 families. Of this amount, 410,800 families do not own their own home and 616,200 own some form of poverty housing. This means that more than 5,000,000 Guatemalans, most of whom are children, live in and cope with poverty housing constructed in precarious locations. In addition to these staggering figures, 45,000 new families each year find themselves in this situation, without a decent place to live.
Through donations from individuals and companies Habitat Guatemala has been purchasing large pieces of land in various communities throughout Guatemala to build Habitat communities known as colonies. The price of the land is worked into the partner family's monthly payment. This enables Habitat to reach families that would not normally qualify for a home because they can not afford the land.
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