Habitat for Humanity engages school students in community work

Hyderabad: More than hundred students from four leading Hyderabad schools, are coming together to participate in the “Build” campaign.

This campaign is being initiated by a global NGO, Habitat for Humanity. It is engaged in improving housing and sanitation for the poor. In the “Build” campaign, children will work together to build homes in Pondicherry.

The work would include white washing of homes, roof concreting, flooring, brick lying, shifting materials (Bricks, Sand, and Blue Metal etc) and sand filtering.

The schools from Hyderabad participating in the ‘Build’ campaign are - Chirec Public School, Oakridge International School, International School of Hyderabad and Sreenidhi International School.

“The thoughtfulness and dedication shown by our students in building homes for the underprivileged is indeed great. We believe that such an effort will also make the students empathise with those who need our help and make the students better citizens and human beings" said Dr. Oli Tooher Hancock, Head of School, International School of Hyderabad.”

“This activity gave first hand community service experience to our students. It is their first step towards becoming a responsible citizen of India” Said Hema Chennupaty, Vice Principal, Oakridge International School, Newton Campus.

Apart from the “Build” activity, Habitat for Humanity has also launched a campaign called ‘Rupee for Change’. This campaign seeks to highlight, how even a single rupee can make a change to the lives of the underprivileged children.

Under this campaign, Habitat for Humanity is conducting educational workshops in schools. At these workshops, the school children are informed about the issues being faced by kids belonging to underprivileged sections of the society.

Apart from workshops, the NGO is also encouraging school students to voluntarily participate in poster making. The poster making is based on three themes which consist of ‘What home means to me’; ‘Importance of Sanitation’ and ‘Cleanliness and Hygiene’.

Throughout the campaign, parents and students voluntarily contribute a sum which hardly translates into Rs.1 per day. Later on, the NGO uses the collective fund for social purposes like building homes for poor and provide sanitation facilities to women and children in slums.