| Habitat for Humanity International |
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Habitat for Humanity International was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. Strong name recognition and a demonstrated capacity to raise funds from the public led to tremendous growth. Today Habitat operates in more than 80 countries, has about 2,400 registered affiliates, and has built about 350,000 houses worldwide, helping 1.5 million people obtain simple, decent and affordable shelter. Through donations of volunteer labor, money and materials, and with the cooperation of the future homeowner (partner) families, Habitat for Humanity builds and renovates homes in an inexpensive way. The homes are then sold to the partner families at no profit, financed with affordable loans. The homeowner's monthly mortgage payments, accompanied by the funds raised, go into a revolving fund that is used to build more houses. Habitat for Humanity does not offer a give-away program. In addition to the low monthly mortgage payments, future homeowners invest an average of 1200 hours of labor - the so called sweat equity - into building their own home and the houses of others. To learn more about urban poverty in Europe/Central Asia, visit http://www.habitat.org/eca/  |