Habitat for Humanity Malawi (HFHM) is a non-profit Christian organisation affiliated to Habitat for Humanity International, headquartered in Atlanta, USA. HFHM was established in 1986 and is registered with the NGO Board .
About 78% of families in Malawi live in substandard housing characterised by mud walls and grass thatched roofs. There are 1.4 million orphans and vulnerable children largely due to HIV & AIDS. There are very few institutions in the country dedicated to eliminating this housing poverty.
HFHM believes that provision of shelter is one way of eliminating poverty and improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable groups of people.
HFH Malawi exists to address poverty housing amongst the orphans and vulnerable children, and low income people. Our strategic goal is to transform the lives of 50,200 families through sustainable decent shelter by 2019
To date HFHM has transformed the lives of over 41,000 low income families and OVG in both rural and urban areas through;
? Housing Support Services (including Construction Technical Assistance)
? Vulnerable Group Housing
? Disaster Risk Reduction and Response
? Water Sanitation and Hygiene Project
NEED FOR HOUSING IN MALAWI
78% of families in Malawi live in substandard housing characterized by mud walls and grass thatch houses (Population and Housing Census, 2008). Malawi has a high rural to urban migration. This has led to increased demand for decent housing in the urban areas; approximately 21,000 new units are needed every year for the next 10 years to meet housing demand and this exceeds supply by far. In the urban areas, many people live in slums characterized by poor water & sanitation facilities, no electricity and poor road network. There are very few institutions dedicated to eliminating poverty housing.
Facts
- Malawi, located in Southern Africa and with 18million people, is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 170 out 187 countries on HDI (UNDP Human Development Index Report, 2013).
- 89% of the population lives on less than US$2 a day.
- 80% of the population is rural – with urban growth rate at over 5%, Malawi is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in Africa (UNHABITAT, Country Programme Document 2008-2009).
- In the peri-urban areas, most households (94%) use pit-latrines, and most households use a shared latrine.
- 4 out of 5 families live in sub-standard homes, with little hope of ever being able to afford a decent house.
- A typical village hut is built of mud and daub with a dirt floor and thatched roof and requires frequent repair. It has poor ventilation.
- HIV prevalence rate is 10.6 percent.
- There 920,000 adults and children living with HIV at the end on 2010 (UNAIDS. unaidsrstesa.org/region/countries/malawi).
- There are an estimated 1.4m orphans and other vulnerable people, over half a million of them due to HIV related deaths.
