wfn.org | ADRA Signs Agreement With Habitat

["Christian B. Schäffler" <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

March 5, 1999
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

ADRA Signs Agreement With Habitat For Humanity 
International 

Dhaka, Bangladesh, [APD/ADRA] The Adventist 
Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and Habitat for 
Humanity International signed a memorandum of 
understanding (MOU) to co-operatively arrange low-cost 
housing for families of nearly 1,200 women enrolled in 
ADRA Bangladesh's Women Empowerment Program 
(WEP). The long-term agreement became effective on 
March 1, 1999. 

The Habitat homes will be built for the families of those 
women who have been in the WEP program since 1990, all 
located around the city of Mymensingh in northern 
Bangladesh. The four groups, of approximately 300 women 
each, have successfully completed their micro-credit loans 
with ADRA and are currently running small businesses and 
earning steady income. Habitat will initiate a new micro-
credit loan for the same women to help them pay, interest-
free, for their new homes.

"We are pleased to be working in the Mymensingh area 
with such a respected organisation as ADRA," states Arthur 
Orr, Habitat for Humanity Bangladesh representative. 
"ADRA has provided years of training and education 
through its WEP project to our target constituency and 
placed many of them in a position to fulfill their dream of 
owning a reliable house in which they can be proud. We 
look forward to continuing the work which ADRA began." 

There are 16 other groups in various stages of ADRA's 
WEP program. Women enrolled in the program develop 
small businesses such as setting up street-side markets, 
selling the milk from cows they have purchased, or selling 
the rice they've grown from purchased land. The profits 
received from their businesses are returned to ADRA to 
pay off their loans. Upon entering the micro-credit 
program, ADRA also educates the women in mother/child 
health, literacy and math, and STD/AIDS prevention. Since 
1990, ADRA's WEP project has been funded by ADRA 
Sweden, Canada and Australia.

If this initial project is a success, the opportunity to expand 
will be evaluated by ADRA Bangladesh and Habitat. As the 
new WEP groups mature and complete their micro-credit 
loans with ADRA, they, too may be evaluated for homes 
from Habitat for Humanity International. 

Both organisations agree that this new partnership will 
enhance the self-esteem of the women and their families, 
providing them with the opportunity to own a stable, and 
respectable home. In turn, families can devote more 
attention to job opportunities, education and health. As the 
crushing cycle of poverty is broken, the entire community 
changes for the better. 

"We appreciate the positive spirit that we have found 
working with Habitat," says Chris Smoot, ADRA Bangladesh 
director. "The beneficiaries of our Women Empowerment 
Project have been requesting housing loans, and this gives 
us a perfect opportunity to make them a reality." 

Founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, Habitat for 
Humanity International is a non-profit, ecumenical 
Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating 
substandard housing and homelessness world-wide and to 
making adequate, affordable shelter a matter of 
conscience and action. Habitat invites people from all faiths 
and walks of life to work together in partnership, building 
houses with families in need. Habitat has built some 
70,000 houses around the world, providing more than 
350,000 people with safe, decent, affordable shelter. 
[99/06/01]