Press Releases
U.S. Ambassador Joins U.S. Volunteers to Build Houses in Korogwe
January 11, 2007
On January 10 Ambassador Michael L. Retzer joined U.S. State Representative Steven Weickert of Appleton, Wisconsin and fourteen other volunteers from Wisconsin who are visiting Korogwe District, Tanga Region to help build houses alongside families in need. This project is part of the Habitat for Humanity Tanzania programme to construct decent, affordable homes for people in Korogwe who have no other access to adequate housing.
The US team has come to Tanzania as part of Habitat for Humanity International’s Global Village programme. Several team members are involved in Habitat for Humanity programs in their own local communities in the United States. The volunteers are providing their unskilled labour to work alongside the families who will benefit, and many have raised funds to support Habitat for Humanity’s programme in Tanzania.
The group has been in Korogwe for ten days and has helped to build three houses. The houses all have solid concrete foundations, locally produced walls of burnt brick and roofs of corrugated iron sheets. Each house has three rooms and a ventilated improved pit latrine.
Habitat for Humanity Tanzania began working in Kasulu, Kigoma Region in 1986 and has grown into a programme with 18 active local offices that have served almost 50 different communities across the country. The HFHT programme has helped communities build almost 2,200 houses, providing durable shelter for around 12,000 Tanzanians. The programme provides the construction supervision necessary to ensure that houses are built to a high standard, and provides loan financing for participating families, making housing affordable even to those on very low incomes. Repayments then revolve through a local fund which enables more people in the community to build homes for themselves.
The HFHT house design aims to use locally available materials wherever possible. Solid foundations are a key design feature, together with cement floors and windows screened against mosquitoes. The roofs are usually of corrugated iron sheets on wooden trusses painted with used engine oil to deter insects. All homeowners also benefit from a ventilated pit latrine.