Left: Teams of Global Village volunteers help build affordable homes in Canada and around the world. Right: As a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program, Beth Jean Evans has travelled and worked on homes in several countries.
Long after the blisters on hands unaccustomed to swinging a hammer have healed, volunteers for Habitat for Humanity Canada's Global Village program recall the enduring connections they have made while working alongside families to build an affordable place for them to live.
Since the program that sends Canadians across the country and around the globe to build or renovate homes was launched in 2005, more than 16,000 volunteers have helped build 1,250 Habitat homes in 47 countries. Part of the trip cost is a direct donation to the local Habitat for Humanity in the country, and volunteers are encouraged to fundraise in order to make this donation.
Toronto-based Beth Jean Evans says the Global Village experience fosters an ongoing engagement with the communities that is seldom found in other forms of volunteering.
"Besides the physical building of the house, people get very engaged and the experience becomes part of their own life. For example, if there is something in the news about Guatemala, the volunteers who have been there will be emailing one another and exploring ways to help," she says.
The opportunity to volunteer with the Global Village program adds perspective to Ms. Evans's postgraduate work studying international development. In addition to living and conducting field work in South America for a year, Ms. Evans says she has gained valuable hands-on experience of international development through the Global Village program.
"I like to get my hands dirty too, so the program has enabled me to experience the practical side and make a physical contribution while also seeing international development first-hand and what that means on the ground," she says.
Since her first stint as a Global Village volunteer in Cambodia in 2009, Ms. Evans has travelled to several countries including Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chile.
She quickly dispels the myth that a project is completed in just a couple of weeks.
"There's a misconception that there's a dry plot of land and in 10 days you're going to have completed an entire house," she says.
Ms. Evans explains that international volunteers fit into a cycle.
"During our one or two weeks there we make an important contribution, but it's ongoing and we lend our services to whatever [work] is needed at the time," she adds.
One of her most memorable experiences was as a team leader on a trip to Chile in 2014. The team worked on two projects: building a house with a family, and renovating another home to better accommodate a disabled teenager.
In addition to removing a wall in the home and widening doorways to enable wheelchair access, the team created a front garden so that the non-verbal young adult could be wheeled to a position where he could view the landscape plants.
"It was very emotional for everyone because we were making physical changes that really improved his quality of life," says Ms. Evans.
She also values the Habitat for Humanity philosophy that requires a partnership between the organization and the people who need affordable homes.
"Working with the families in particular really reinforces that they are not recipients of charity. As volunteers, we're not building a house for them and then leaving and they're getting it. They're working right along with us. I think that really helps reinforce the collaborative aspect of working together towards a common good," she says.
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