The Habitat for Humanity club at East, like the name implies, raises awareness for the organization Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that specializes in making and maintaining affordable housing. According to Habitat for Humanity, their mission is to “build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter.”

At East, the Habitat for Humanity club donates to this organization and raises awareness about it. With the goal to raise awareness about Habitat for Humanity, the club hosted an event on December 18th, 2021. In this event, people made gingerbread houses and decorated them. Usually, it is a competition to see who can make the best house, but this year it was just a collection of gingerbread houses.

One other reason for this event was to raise awareness for the Habitat for Humanity club. Habitat for Humanity has a phrase it likes to use when talking about what they do. They talk about “giving a hand up, not a hand out.” They are not just trying to give people homes, but to empower communities to build the homes themselves. They offer building supplies, appliances and anything else someone may need to build a home. They sell these items at a fraction of the price that retail stores sell them for.

They are an international and nonprofit organization. For 46 years, Habitat for Humanity has helped more than 39 million people in building them a home or improving an already existing structure. In 2021 alone, they were able to help over 12.7 million people in total. Every year, they become a more effective organization and further their quest in giving people all over the world adequate shelter and improving and changing lives.

The statistics show that Habitat for Humanity is necessary now more than ever. According to Habitat for Humanity, “fifty-eight percent say that a family of four with an income of about 50,000 would have a hard time finding affordable quality housing.”

Nora Smaldore, the leader of the club at East says, “It was an event to just help promote Habitat for Humanity’s existence, and we use the profits to fund club events and donate back to the organization at the end of the year.”