wfn.org | Post-Korea, NCCCUSA's Bob Edgar Recruiting for 2002 Habitat Build

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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
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NCC8/15/2001 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Want to volunteer in 2002?  Contact Dr. Edgar at redgar@ncccusa.org

POST-KOREA, BOB EDGAR RECRUITING FOR 2002 HABITAT BUILD

August 15, 2001, NEW YORK CITY -- Just back from helping Habitat for
Humanity build 136 houses in Korea, National Council of Churches General
Secretary Bob Edgar already has started recruiting volunteers for the next
international build, in Durban, South Africa, in June 2002.

Its an experience people will never forget, said Dr. Edgar, who spent
Aug. 5-11 in Asan, South Korea, working alongside Jimmy and Rossalyn Carter,
South Koreas President Kim Dae Jung and other volunteers, shingling roofs,
putting up walls and siding, laying floors and painting.

The Jimmy Carter Work Project 2001 in Korea was the lead event in this
summers first Habitat for Humanity World Leaders Build, in which 28 heads
of state from 26 nations were to join builds and support construction of
1,175 houses for people in need of shelter in 43 countries.  The effort
sought to draw attention to the worldwide problems of poverty housing.

Some 9,000 volunteers from around the world helped 136 Korean families build
simple, decent houses, 72 of them in Asan.

The new homeowners worked with us, Dr. Edgar said. One of them got so
excited that by Wednesday, he was asking us to take our shoes off inside
even though we hadnt put the floors down yet! When on Friday we handed over
the keys to the finished homes, there were many tears of joy.

Dr. Edgar commented that his participation in the Korea build helped cement
the new relationship between the National Council of Churches and Habitat
for Humanity.  The two organizations in March signed a Memorandum of
Understanding that lays the groundwork for a growing list of joint
endeavors aimed at eliminating poverty housing.

Toward Habitat for Humanitys goal of building 100,000 homes in the next
five years, members of the NCCs General Assembly will help build homes in
Oakland, Calif., in November. The NCCs Justice for Women Working Group and
Church World Service are exploring other collaborations.

Dr. Edgar will participate in Habitat for Humanitys 25th anniversary
celebrations in September in Indianapolis, and is considering taking the NCC
Executive Boards spring 2002 meeting to Americus, Ga., where Habitat for
Humanity has its headquarters.

Dr. Edgar and the NCCs President for 2000-2001, Ambassador Andrew Young,
are scheduled to join Habitat for Humanitys summer 2002 Build in South
Africa. Dr. Edgar said, I want to take 50 NCC volunteers - at least one
from each of the NCCs 36 member communions -- with me to Durban and raise
$50,000, which will build 10 houses for a multiracial community on land from
which poor people were removed during apartheid.

The partnership is one in an emerging network of collaborative work to end
poverty in the United States. Through its Poverty Mobilization, launched in
November 2000, the NCC is focused on making a measurable difference against
poverty over the coming decade in such areas as housing, child poverty,
health care, public education, environment and public policy, including
welfare and budget priorities.

While in Korea, Dr. Edgar also met with officials of the National Council of
Churches in Korea (NCCK) and participated, at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 12, in
the South and North Korea 2001 Common Prayer Sunday Worship for Peaceful
Reunification (Ah-Hyun Methodist Church in Seoul).  An identical service
was held simultaneously in North Korea.

I am looking forward to more meetings in the United States and Canada this
fall with officials of the NCCK and of the Korean Christians Federation,
from North Korea, Dr. Edgar said.  Ive committed to accompany NCCK
officials to the north, and we dreamed of bringing North and South Koreans
together sometime in the next two years to build a Habitat for Humanity
house straddling North and South Korea.

-end-