Your donations at work in Costa Rica

When you donate to Twin Cities Habitat, you don’t just help the Twin Cities community; you help make a better world. That’s because we send 10 percent of our privately raised undesignated funds – called tithe - to support Habitat’s worldwide mission of eliminating poverty housing and homelessness. In 2010, Twin Cities Habitat sent its tithe to support the small Central American country of Costa Rica, and our first two groups of volunteers from the Twin Cities groups traveled there earlier this year.

The January Costa Rica trip aimed to educate volunteers about access to affordable housing around the world, while spending a few days building on site. In March, Twin Cities Habitat led 22 volunteers to La Fortuna, Costa Rica and worked on the construction of 4 homes for Habitat Costa Rica families. They built on site alongside the homebuyers and staff from Habitat for Humanity Costa Rica.

Your donations have already provided materials to construct homes for eight Costa Rican families in the Peñas Blancas II project, an initiative which in its entirety will benefit 12 La Fortuna families living in extreme poverty. Jeff Smith—one of the Trip Leaders—said that TCHFH will lead 2 more teams of volunteers to Costa Rica in 2012, with a goal of sending one team annually to each of its tithe partner countries: Costa Rica, Haiti and Mozambique.

Though Costa Rica has a fairly stable economy, an estimated 35 percent of the population lives in inadequate housing, and 16 percent live in poverty.

You can learn more about our progress in Costa Rica by visiting http://www.tchabitat.org/costarica or http://www.tchabitat.org/globalvillage