Camilo

Habitat for Humanity Community Service

Habitat for Humanity often referred to as simply Habitat is an international, nongovernmental, and nonprofit organization. It was founded in 1976 by Linda and Millard Fuller. Habitat’s mission has been to devote their skills and labor-hours to the building of "simple, decent, and affordable" housing for low-income families, and it has addressed some other issues of poverty housing all over the world. The international operational headquarters are in Georgia, and they currently operate in 70 countries over the world. In New Jersey, Habitat for Humanity has 6 offices located in Somerville, Plainfield, Randolph, Princeton, Hightstown, and lastly, Newark.

                   
           

For the past two weeks, I have worked on Sundays with Habitat for Humanity for the Somerset County. As stated before, RVHFH in Somerville was founded mainly with the intention of giving affordable homes through the use of volunteers. This amazing organization has not seized to surprise me with all the work they do. Their ideals have expanded from just building homes to make an even more dramatic difference in the lives of their community by giving multiple donations. RVHFH states that; “No doubt, construction is the most visible part of our mission, but we have so many more ways for you to give your time and talent.” They were not wrong with that statement. When I joined, I attended to a committee that was in charge of dividing people into different tasks. That same Sunday, I was sent to an office that managed the fund-raising events and helped to organize the activities.

Our first event was to fundraise money for both building-materials to be used and for local people with hearing problems in Flemington, NJ. The small-street fair had music, prizes, contests among other activities. The event went from 9-10am to 3pm and we had donations from both local businesses from the area and individuals from the community. The second event was to start a small construction around Franklin Park for the summer to be finished, but because of overstaffing and excess of volunteers, I was not able to help. Instead, I was sent to the office to help with billing/paperwork and brainstorm for the next event that will be hosted a week from today. The main reason why I chose this organization was because of hour flexibility and how close they were to my house. I was able to offer my finance/banking skills to them and proposed different options all throughout the meeting. The experience overall was exceptional from the moment I stepped into their facilities that came along with the amount of respect that I was given. Habitat is truly an organization that takes their roles seriously and that give back to the community by simply being human.