FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
03/23/15
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 23, 2015) – Food For The Poor’s generous donors have built more than 100,000 housing units for destitute families in the Caribbean and Latin America. The desperate living conditions of the poor inspired Food For The Poor to begin its home building initiative in 1985 in Jamaica.
Food For The Poor’s homes are well-built, safe and secure. These permanent homes not only benefit the families receiving them, but also provide much-needed work for local laborers. With the help of donors, Food For The Poor is on schedule this year to build approximately 8,000 housing units.
Food For The Poor donors constructed 7,367 housing units in 2014 and gifted them to destitute families. The greatest number of homes were built in Jamaica (2,057 housing units), Honduras (1,812), Haiti (1,774), and Nicaragua (1,594).
Special housing matches have fueled Food For The Poor’s ability to help change the dire circumstances of destitute families. Through the end of 2015, generous friends of Food For The Poor have offered to match any gift received to build homes in Nicaragua, Honduras and Jamaica. This means that every gift received to build a home in these countries will be matched dollar-for-dollar.
“The poor live in very dangerous situations and struggle with overwhelming circumstances every day,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor President/CEO. “It is difficult for many of us to imagine what it must be like to be surrounded by rain-soaked, muddy floors, and walls made of plastic on a daily basis. To escape a life of poverty, destitute families need a proper roof over their heads, clean water and sanitation.”
Click here to watch a photo documentary that illustrates the critical need for housing that exists in developing countries.
Dilapidated shacks made of scraps of wood, metal, plastic and cardboard offer little protection from the elements, insects and rodents. As a result, illness and disease are rampant, especially among those who are most vulnerable — the young and elderly. In addition, the poor who live in these conditions are particularly devastated by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes.
Last year, Food For The Poor donors built then 4-year-old Maudiel and his family a new, solid home in Nicaragua. By replacing the family’s primitive shack, which was strung together with dried palm fronds and ripped plastic tarps, Maudiel can now sleep peacefully through the night. He no longer wakes scared when the wind rattles the roof, or worries that the rain will turn the floor into mud. His new Food For The Poor house keeps him safe. Learn more about Maudiel’s story here.
In 1995, Food For The Poor-Haiti began a housing program and began building homes in Cite Soleil. Since then, 11,068 double-unit homes have been built in Haiti, 5,015 of them since the earthquake in January 2010. These sturdy homes provide the poor with shelter, safety and hope for the future.
A gift of $3,200 will build a single-unit home with sanitation; a gift of $6,400 will build a double-unit home with sanitation and a water component. In countries like Haiti, where the average household has seven members, Food For The Poor builds only double-unit homes by combining two single-unit donations.
For information regarding Food For The Poor’s home building initiative, or to support the program, please call 954-427-2222 or visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/home.
Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visitwww.FoodForThePoor.org.
Jennifer Leigh Oates
Public Relations Associate
6401 Lyons Road,
Coconut Creek, FL 33073
954.427.2222 ext. [6054]
954.426.6857 (fax)
www.FoodForThePoor.org
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