Building Social Awareness in Schools with Habitat for Humanity

There are few teachers would argue that schools have an enormous responsibility for not only the intellectual development of our pupils, but also for their emotional, spiritual, career, personal as well as social development. Many schools now run major social awareness projects in their schools, principally as part of their Transition Year programmes, which can aid in developing a social awareness amongst the pupil body. In my own school, we have partnered with the charity Habitat for Humanity (HFH) in designing a social awareness initiative that meets the needs of our pupils, staff and school community as well fulfilling our duty in helping those less fortunate than ourselves.

Habitat for Humanity is a non-denominational Christian Charity, which helps build houses for people who simply can't afford them. Habitat works in partnership with families to build their own homes and other homes in their community. It is completely non-profit, with all funds used to build houses and create the structures in other countries to do the same. Since its inception in 1976, HFH have built over 250,000 homes in more than 100 countries, including Ireland. Once built, Habitat supplies the family with an easy to pay loan. The family will help build their own house but also build other homes in their community, a term described as "sweat equity".

Since 2007, the school has been sending pupils and teachers to building projects with HFH in Hungary, a country we have fostered a great relationship with since our first visit. We worked for two years on a building project in Csurgo (during St. Patrick's Day in 2008 - hence the dodgy photo above), one year in Hajdu and this April we will travel to Miskolc in north eastern Hungary to continue our work.