The annual event aims for 1,000,000 young people in 15 countries to build homes and speak out on substandard housing issues.
The annual Young Leaders Build is Habitat’s largest youth movement in the region. This youth-driven campaign taking place for the fifth consecutive year focuses on tackling the challenges of poverty housing.
“Many youth worldwide have developed a culture of service. It is deeply ingrained in who they are,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. “At Habitat, we see young people as our future leaders. Through their volunteer work and power to influence, young people build homes and shed light on the important need for adequate housing. Together, we help families gain strength, stability and independence through shelter.”
The regional movement expects to rally more than one million youth, celebrities and corporate participants to volunteer, fundraise and speak out on the need for decent homes as a way out of poverty.
There is an urgent need for shelter that is safe and affordable across the Asia-Pacific region. The United Nations estimates that more than 500 million people in the Asia-Pacific live in slums, representing more than half of the world’s slum dwellers, and that globally 1.6 billion people live without adequate shelter. Habitat Young Leaders Build engages youth to show solidarity with Habitat’s cause – to draw attention to, and tackle, the issue of substandard housing.
As part of the 2016 campaign, Habitat Australia will send a youth team to Thailand from the 6th – 13th of February to work alongside local university and school students.
This past year’s campaign, then known as Habitat Youth Build, brought together over 669,000 volunteers and participants from 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, to help over 13,000 families begin their journey to secure safe, decent homes. Volunteers worked on 9,498 houses, and raised $559,173 towards programs to alleviate poverty housing.
You can find more information on our upcoming Habitat Young Leaders Build here – www.habitat.org.au/volunteer-overseas/upcoming-builds/young-leaders-build.
