Just in Time

Having a child is the greatest motivation for improving your situation in life.  Through Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s Save and Build (S&B) program, this family was able to build a simple, decent home---just in time for their precious new arrival.

Morin Dayana Holway and her husband G.G. Samath Kumara live in the village of Katudeniya near Matale.  In 2004, recently married and expecting their first child, the couple wondered how they could make life better for their growing family.  They were living in a one-room, makeshift clay hut that Samath made himself.  Although Samath is a carpenter in Matale Town, his low, unstable income meant he could not afford materials to build a better home and was ineligible for a traditional bank loan. 

Matale District has a population of 443,000, and 43% of it's inhabitants live in temporary, poverty housing.  Morin and Samath’s home was typical of this rural area: the mud-floor “house” was vulnerable to snakes and insects, and the cadjan-leaf roof was falling apart and constantly needed replacing.  Makeshift houses like these, with no windows or locking doors, are unsafe, unsound and unhealthy.  Children who live in such homes have high rates of respiratory illness.  They go to school wearing moldy clothes from the wet indoor living conditions, and they are treated like second-class citizens in the village because they do not have permanent cement-block homes.  This couple wanted a better place to raise their child…and so did their community.

They inquired about Habitat’s Save and Build Program and were taken under the wing of Mrs. Nanawathi—“Nana.”  The irrepressible Nana is credited with almost single-handedly spreading the Save and Build concept in Matale, where 79 savings groups had built 850 houses by August 2006.   The couple joined the12-member “Samagi” (Together) and started saving in April 2005. 

“We are poor, but we know each other.  We trust each other to help all of us build a house,” said Morin.  They all saved, and they all worked.  Morin collected money for the S&B payments by growing the family’s own fruits and vegetables.  Samath hauled sand and water to the site and made bricks as part of their sweat equity.  He also made the door and windows frames and posts for the roof of the house. 

Everyone was rooting for Morin and Samath.  Samath’s brother donated the land to build their house on and helped Habitat with legal registration in the village.  Since a baby was on the way, the members decided that Morin and Samath should be among the first in their group to get a home, and they hustled to finish the couple’s house quickly.   “This couple had an amazing rapport with the Save and Build group, and the entire group was really energetic,” says HFHSL’s Affiliate Development Manager Rohitha Fernando.  Samath has volunteered his carpentry skills to other homeowners, even ones that are not in his own savings group. 

Little Vishmina Pathum was born two months before the two-room house was completed in June 2005.  He will grow up in an attractive home that’s clean, safe and dry.  Samath has built a temporary kitchen until they can add a large one through Save and Build, and he also hopes to add a carpentry workshop. The Samagi group plans to use Save and Build to enlarge all of their new homes once they complete the first cycle and repay their loan. 

“Habitat taught us that we should have a vision of the house we want, and with determination, we could have it, says Morin, “and they were right.  Now I know that by working together, we can achieve anything.”

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