Habitat for Humanity - Samoa Project update

Piranha Tools is sponsoring Habitat for Humanity's housing rebuild project in Samoa by donating a range of hand tools for the job. The team have taken some great images to share with you to see the progress they've been making.

The $1.5 million, three year NZAID match-funded project in Samoa in partnership with ADRA Samoa (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) has now completed its pilot stage. The project will help hundreds of families with financial literacy and develop the local building industry, while making sure those families have cyclone-proof homes when the next storm hits. Over one month at the end of 2015, 5 homes were built for Samoan families who had undertaken financial literacy courses to gain eligibility for a Samoan Housing Corporation loan. Each week, a team of a dozen volunteers worked with the family to get it ready for them to move in. 

One home was built on the outskirts of Apia for Elvis and his family (photo above) on his family’s land. Elvis had been working on a herd muster on the other major island Sa’avai and travelling back to Apia on the main island of Upolo most days to help work on the home and see his family. Apia is his home and the major centre of employment in the country, and now his family have a decent place to live, metres from his extended family on the land he grew up on.

 The project has another 2 years to run, and the next stage is a build involving kiwi volunteers building homes between Feb 8 and March 18. This time the goal is to build cyclone-proof fale as well as smaller renovations on existing homes for another 20+ families.