Ecuador Partnership

Ecuador Habitat For Humanity Team Opportunities

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Background:

Four years ago an agreement was established between The Ecuador Partnership and Habitat For Humanity International to build ten houses in Ecuador during a period of five years. The partnership included providing 90% of the cost of materials and nominally 10% of the labor by ISC teams. The first of these houses was built in Guayaquil, Ecuador in September of 2005. Since then four additional structures have been built. (Catamayo - 2006, Tosagua - 2006, Santo Domingo - 2007 and Catamayo - 2007) Forty-three people from ISC churches and associated organizations have raised funds for their own trip expenses and participated in these building projects in Ecuador. The remaining structures will be built during 2008 - 2010. This partnership has provided hope and stability for families in Ecuador who have joined with Habitat International to build their own home along side the members of the ISC work teams. After the completion of each project, the partner families purchase their home from Habitat at 0% interest. This provides an opportunity for the partner families to own a home that they may not otherwise have been able to afford.

Current Plans:

The Ecuador Partnership is presently planning a trip during February and another in July each year until the partnership objectives have been met.

What to expect:

There are three orientation sessions associated with each trip. The purpose of these orientation meetings is to help the teams prepare for a successful trip. This includes clarifying expectations of and for the team members, discussing what will take place in Ecuador and suggesting things to pack that have been most often useful to prior team members. Some time is also invested in making agreements about how the team will interact while in Ecuador. This is helpful as it allows team members to know in advance what each of their roles will be and what they can expect from each other in terms of the group process.

The trip will usually offer some opportunities to see some of the sights while in the country, particularly if the travel is arranged through Quito. However, the primary focus of the team is to work in partnership with local people to build the Habitat For Humanity structure in the city selected for the project. Hence, the team members can expect to end most days tired and dirty, but feeling very satisfied. There are usually some organized opportunities to become acquainted with local people and culture, but, again, the principle focus is working on the building site with the Ecuadorian craftsmen and future homeowners and their family members.

Fund Raising:

Each of the Habitat participants is expected to cover their own expenses while on this work trip, including transportation to and from Ecuador. There are a variety of ways to do this. Some participants pay the required amount from their own resources. Others may request financial assistance for their trip from their church, or their friends and families. Others may elect to organize fundraisers to defray costs. Additionally, the Ecuador Partnership Committee has committed to providing 90% of the cost of the materials and some of the specialized labor needed for the construction (approximately $6300). Each of the team members is expected to do some fund raising within their church or similar organization to help with this funding objective.

A team member may be able to raise funds either for the trip expenses or the building materials in some of the following ways:

Let your church and/or any small groups in your church know what you want to do, when you want to do it and why you want to do it. Ask the pastor for a few minutes to do the `Mission Moment' in the services prior to the trip to make people aware of what you hope to achieve.
Make it apparent what you personally are willing to commit to this trip. For example, if you are in a position to fund your own expenses but need assistance raising money for materials, make this known. If you cannot fund all of your expenses, let the church members know what amount you can commit and what amount you are hoping to raise. When people are aware that you are making a sacrificial commitment, they will be more likely to help with what you need.
Offer to report back to the group that is providing funding. A trip report will be produced that will make this fairly easy to do and each trip participant has a part in the journal process that forms the basis for this report. Additionally there are many photos taken which are usually shared after the trip on a CD or in a Power Point presentation. This makes it convenient to report back to the funding groups after the trip, so that they can see what you did, see the people you met and understand the effect that their resources produced.
Design fundraisers in partnership with people in your church (i.e., Ministry of Outreach Committees, Bible Study Groups, Sunday School Classes, Women's or Men's organizations, Youth Groups), which will promote interest in the trip.
Acquire copies of photos from prior trips (available on the Ecuador Partnership internet site attached to the ISC site) and use these photos to create a poster to be placed in the fellowship area in your church. Staff a table near this poster as often as possible to explain to people what you are hoping to do and what your fund raising objectives are. When people see that you are committed to investing the time to generate interest in the project and to make the case for why this is important to the church, they are more likely to respond by helping with the funding.
Let your friends and family members know that you need resources for this trip. When they become aware that you are committed to doing the work associated with fundraising and see that you have committed some of you own resources, they may be interested in helping.
Many youth groups have effectively used the mechanism of selling `miles' when they have a defined travel objective. This is often done with a poster that includes a map of the objective and some information about the trip. People often respond to the opportunity to do their part, even if it is a small part, when they know that they are doing this in partnership with many others. The more people who can be involved making small contributions, the more general interest will be developed throughout the church in the success of the ministry opportunity. Keep a posting of the `miles' raised by marking the map each week with the progress of the fundraising. There are always people who will watch this process for many weeks and then will finally provide what you need to get this `over the top' as you draw closer to the milestone for your objective.

For most of these trips, the final payment for the trip must be in the ISC office more than two months prior to the trip, so fundraising efforts should be designed to meet this objective.

You can also contact members of the Ecuador Partnership Committee for additional information and ideas about fund raising. The contact information is available on the Ecuador Partnership Website.(add address) The partnership does not provide financial assistance for team members, as this is the responsibility of each participant, but There should be no reason that access to resources should stop anyone from going on these trips as long as the proposed participant is willing to do the organizational work involved with developing fund raising opportunities. The Church has always collectively had the resources to fund valid ministry being proposed by credible people.