World Habitat Day Today

With apologies to Liza Peiffer of Habitat for Humanity, www.habitat.org, who asked me to let you know about today some time ago.

Better late than never, I guess.

Today, Monday, Oct. 4, Habitat for Humanity will join efforts around the world to mark World Habitat Day.  This is a day the United Nations has set aside to call attention to the dire need for affordable, adequate housing.

Liza has put a great site online with facts, videos, photos, banners and even a way to submit your own photo to the World Habitat Day Photo Wall, http://worldhabitatdaynews.org. OK, the site and it’s focus is that of the USA, but come on, affordable housing is just as relevant here in South Derbyshire and in England as anywhere else in the world.  If anything, it’s an indictment of our society that there is a need for a project to support homeless young people to be based here at South Derbyshire CVS. 

World Habitat Day is a really worthwhile campaign because every week, more than a million people are born in, or move to, cities in the developing world. As a result, the urban population of developing countries will double from 2 billion to 4 billion in the next 30 years and by the year 2030, an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 96,150 new affordable units every day and 4,000 every hour.

The Volunteer Centre is proud to support World Habitat Day.