"I have been fortunate to be involved recently in several volunteer and charity initiatives across Asia. Each of these experiences has allowed me to learn more about the countries that surround Singapore, meet the wonderful people who live there amid both beauty and poverty, while making great friends and taking away fantastic memories.
The first was the Habitat for Humanity: Batam Build in September. Habitat for Humanity (HfH) is a non-profit organisation founded in the US in 1976 with a mission ‘to eliminate poverty housing worldwide by building simple, decent houses with the help of the homeowner families themselves and volunteers’. It now operates internationally and since 2004 has had a presence in Singapore sending volunteers ‘for building projects and disaster response to…China, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand’. The organisation does not believe in simply handing out money with ‘home partners’ providing both financing for the building materials and their own labour. HfH provides logistics, additional volunteer labour and affordable no-interest financing.
Together with a group of 10 colleagues I spent a day helping Mr. Dominikus Jawa build his house in Batam. Having done this before in March 2011 I was prepared for the conditions but it was still a shock to see such poverty only 45mins ferry ride from Singapore’s Habourfront terminal. Batam is part of the Ruiau Islands Province of Indonesia. Not as well developed as it’s neighbour Bintan, which is a popular luxury weekend get away from Singapore, it almost exactly the same size as Singapore and home to around 1.2m people. In the 1970s it was extensively deforested and became a shipbuilding and electronics manufacturing centre due to its proximity to the international port of Singapore. This has led to widespread economic migration from elsewhere in Indonesia causing a housing shortage and the buildup of slum housing.
My colleagues and I spent the day building the lower part of the walls for the Jawa family home. HfH has recently started using a new type of brick which is a little bit like a Lego brick. The bricks are easy to stack and have holes running through them which can then be filled with an iron rod and cement for strength. Compared to the building materials we are used to in the West this is very primitive but allows for homes to be built cheaply, quickly and with unskilled labour. Previously Habitat volunteers could only clear land and prepare building sites but now are able to do a lot more. First we took delivery of the bricks and using a human chain unloaded them into piles. Laying the walls was quick and easy and the boys were very enthusiastic at mixing the cement but filling the holes was rather tricky given the tools we had – only 3 trowels between 10 of us – so we resorted to cutting water bottles in half to use as funnels which proved much more efficient. Although we started early (leaving Singapore on the first ferry at 7am) as the climate is hot and steamy we were soon streaming with sweat and exhausted from even the lightest manual labour. It was a real eye-opener when you consider the construction workers who toil in 24hr shifts to build all of Singapore’s impressive sky scrapers or those in the desert heat of Dubai who during the month of Ramadan are not allowed even a sip of water. By the end of the day we had built up the walls up to around 1m and could really see the house taking shape. Although small for a family of 4 (around 5m square) it is fantastic to know that we were able to help provide safe housing for a family and some financial security as they will own their own home."
Victoria
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