Habitat for Humanity Mission Statement

Founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, Habitat for Humanity is an NGO based in the United States that builds homes, communities, and hope for many people. This Christian organization involves volunteers to build and sell homes on a no-profit basis. As of 2020, the organization operates in more than 70 countries across the world.

Habitat for Humanity has its foundations in Koinonia Farm, a small Christian farming community founded by Clarence Jordan in the United States. Both Fuller and Jordan developed the concept of “partnership housing” where volunteers would build homes and no interest would be charged on the loans to build the houses. 

The first houses were built in 1968 on 42 half-acre house sites using the capital donated from across the country. In 1976, they launched Habitat for Humanity International to take forward the community house building concept to other countries. 

Impressed by their concept, the US President and Nobel Prize Laureate Jimmy Carter launched the Jimmy Carter Work Project in New York in 1984. As of date, Habit for Humanity has built homes for thousands of people across North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern & Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.

Habitat for Humanity’s mission is to put God’s love in action for the betterment of the community and bringing people together to build homes and keep hope alive. By encouraging charity and volunteer work, it wishes to provide poor people with one of their biggest needs, i.e. Housing.

The vision of Habitat for Humanity is to create a world in which every person irrespective of his status and religion has a decent place to live in. It aims to build strength, stability, and self-reliance in people by providing people with much-needed homes for their families.

The core values and principles of Habitat for Humanity are to spread awareness about Jesus Christ and his love for the people, work towards providing shelter to people by providing affordable housing. It wants to achieve the same by giving people dignity and hope, while also supporting sustainable development. 

Habitat for Humanity Mission Statement

Habitat for Humanity mission statement is “Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope.” Through this mission statement, Habitat for Humanity clearly defines its goals and the actions it undertakes to achieve them.

• Seeking to put God’s love in action: Habitat for Humanity wishes to promote the teachings of Christianity and share how God’s love can play an important part in their life. By appealing to people to spread God’s love and show their love for humanity through volunteer work and donations, it wants people to partake in its mission of providing homes to the homeless and those less deprived in society.

• Brings people together: It aims to unite people for the betterment of the community. Working together as a team is also highlighted in this statement. 

• Build homes, communities, and hope:  Habitat for Humanity builds not only homes for the needy but also gives hope for a better future. 

Habitat for Humanity Vision Statement

The vision statement of Habitat for Humanity is “A world where everyone has a decent place to live in.” It envisions a world in which every human being, irrespective of their caste, color, religion, and financial status, has a house where he can stay with his family and take care of them. 

High construction costs and huge investments make good housing a distant dream for most poor people who can barely make ends meet. Habitat for Humanity’s vision is to make houses that are habitable and comfortable for all human beings so that they can build strong communities where everyone loves and respects each other. 

It wants people to do charity and volunteer their time and money to address the most difficult issue people face, i.e. decent housing. 

Habitat for Humanity Core Values

To ensure fulfillment of its mission and vision, the team of Habitat for Humanity has laid down specific principles, which it follows diligently. These principles guide the day-to-day working of the organization in accordance with its mission and vision of providing housing for all. 

The 5 core values of Habitat for Humanity are:

1. Demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ: As a god-loving organization, it expects its team members to tell other people about the life of Jesus Christ and his love for them. 

2. Focus on shelter: While there are many areas to be addressed, such as providing food, health, education, and clothing, Habitat for Humanity specifically focuses on helping people get a house they can call their own. It believes that having a secure home will motivate and encourage people to work for better living standards. 

3. Advocate for affordable housing: Given the high construction and financial costs involved in owning a home, many people are not able to afford one. As a responsible organization, it expects its people to advocate and promote the concept of affordable housing in all the cities it works in. 

4. Promote dignity and hope: By fulfilling the most basic need of housing, the organization inspires people to focus on rebuilding their lives and hope for a better and more secure future.
5. Support sustainable and transformative development: To build bigger and better communities, Habitat for Humanity wants to promote development that is sustainable on its own without any external support required at a later stage. The aim is to transform people’s lives and make them self-reliant.

Conclusion

Having a roof over one’s family is the basic requirement of millions of people. Having a roof over the head is a great blessing that gives people a sense of security and hope for their future. By addressing this very basic need, Habitat for Humanity wants to build homes for the people by the people who understand God’s love. The result would be stronger communities that work with each other for the betterment of their lives. 

Headquarters:

Atlanta, Georgia, United States