Funding Rationale: Why Partner with West Tallahatchie Habitat for Humanity?

There is nothin comparable to the feeling of being home. There is nothin like the feelin of closing your own door behind you and knowing that you are now in a place where you are safe and comfortable.

Since 1984, West Tallahatchie Habitat for Humanity has strived to create that feeling of home by working with families, businesses, and the community to build simple, decent, and affordable houses that hardworking, low-income families can call their own; they can call home. These families are not recipients of charity or a handout; they are participants in a hand-up: the opportunity to work toward and buy their own affordable homes, their own stepping-stones towards the stabilization and progress of their families.

The vicious cycle of generational poverty is all too prevelant in the Delta and shows itself clearly in a young 10-year-old Tutwiler boy hoping desperately to get a Habitat home. Michael, lives in a house that cannot be called by any standards a home. Michael lives with his mother, older brothers, and sister in a house crawling with cockroaches and other pests. He lives in a house where five of the windows are broken, the door doesn’t lock and the screen door, thoroughly punctured, hangs off its hinges at a barely functional angle. Michael lives in a “home” where he has no central air, no central heat and no bed; a “home” where a 10-year-old boy goes to school every morning after sleeping on a folded comforter on the floor because there isn’t anywhere else for him to sleep.

What is even more heartbreaking about this child and his “home” is that these conditions are not unique to him; Michael’s experience of poverty and substandard housing is shared with too much of Tutwiler’s population. According to the 2000 US Census, 32.1% of Tutwiler families and 38.5% of its population were below the poverty line, including 45.5% of those under age 18 and 31.1% of those [ages] 65 or over.

Substandard housin and the problems in engenders are widespread and entrenched, but we have seen that great progress is possible when Habitat for Humanity partners with businesses, families, and local communities. Throughout the world businesses, churches, and individuals are seeking such partnerships with Habitat because it has proven its efficiency at delivering observable results, transforming communities by building quality afforable homes.

Furthermore, Habitat for Humanity has shown that building homes does more than put a roof over someone’s head; it transforms lives.

In clean, decent, stable housing:

• Families can provide greater stability for their children.
• A family’s sense of dignity and pride grow.
• Health, physical safety, and security improve.
• Educational and job prospects increse.

How to volunteer!

The following is a basic guide about coming to volunteer with us in Tutwiler. Please keep in mind that each group runs its time here differently, and you should feel free to take creative license to shape the expereince into one that will be beneficial and appropriate for your group. Take this information as a brainstorm of ideas, not as a hard-and-fast schedule. In order for us to best meet your needs while you’re here, and so we can plan appopriate construction activities during your stay, please be prepared to share your basic plan with us well in advance of your arrival.

Please get in touch with us – we’d love to talk with you! See our contact information on our Contact Us page.

 

Read about past volunteers and their experiences in Tutwiler, MS: Our Wonderful West Tallahatchie Workers (click on it!)