My first experience with Habitat for Humanity happened in Durham, North Carolina, where I began to grow a love for an organization, the people it welcomed, and the environment it created.
Heading to North Carolina for work purposes for a couple of months to start the calendar year, I sought volunteer opportunities to help embrace and join the community while I was there. Because I had previously been a guide runner for blind marathoners, that was the type of volunteer opportunity I first looked for, but when I realized there were no such organizations in the area, I looked for anything else that might appeal to my skillset and my timeframe.
Durham Habitat couldn’t have offered a better experience. Working on a number of houses over a two-month period, I had the fortune to join members of the local community who were completing sweat equity hours, court-ordered community service hours, work groups who were using the opportunity for team building, individuals who had extra time on their hands, site supervisors who were knowledgeable and friendly, skilled workers who were quick to assist others, and many, many more.
The thing that struck me the most was the organization’s welcoming nature. Anyone and everyone could be involved. There was a job for every volunteer, no matter their level of skill, experience, preferences, age, body type, or anything else. There was something for everyone, and each person was as welcome and necessary as the next. It was all-inclusive, which is not something that can be said for a lot of working environments, and I loved it.
From Durham Habitat, I got involved with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Orlando, in Florida, and in my hometown of London, Ontario. It was also in North Carolina that I realized that I would someday love to participate in a Global Village Build through the organization.
Working with Habitat also gave me a set of skills and sense of confidence in utilizing those skills, allowing me to design and build my own set of furniture for my personal home, something that I never before imagined that I might do.
At the end of November, I got that chance, travelling with 11 other Canadians – including my mother, on her first Habitat venture – to Korovuto Village in Nadi, Fiji, and building a home for a deserving single mother and her three children through Habitat for Humanity Fiji. They had been living as a part of 20 family members sharing a three-bedroom home, and the space was much needed, and incredibly welcome.
So, too, was the entire village. They embraced us from the beginning, and the Global Village Build experience became one of the best things that I have done in my lifetime so far. We became members of the community for a short time, made many friends that we hope to have forever, and experienced a culture much different from our own, providing a life learning experience that can’t be matched.
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