What happens when your house isn't a home?

Every now and then, I chance upon people who work all manner of jobs. So when I was searching for people to have their say on the Greenpeace Arctic Ice Climb the other day, I virtually met Eleanor Perkins who works for Habitat for Humanity. Their aim is to help people fight poverty through building safe, decent homes. Here, she tells us what her job involves and why the stories of the slums need to be told.

"The UN estimates that 1.6 billion people – approximately one in five worldwide – lives in a home that is dangerous, makes them sick, is overcrowded, and keeps adults and children alike trapped in poverty. There are too many people living in ‘poverty housing’ – under tarpaulins propped up by the side of the road in Mumbai, in crumbling Soviet apartment blocks in central Asia, in vast slums or in rural shacks.

"My role is all about finding the stories of the people Habitat for Humanity needs to help, or has already helped, and then sharing these stories," she says.

For example, take Yoy, 39, who lives in Cambodia. He constantly struggles with peace of mind as he leaves his wife and six children in their rented house to scavenge the dumpsite in the city centre at night. "Their neighbourhood is not safe. There are conflicts and violence, but he doesn't have much choice about where he can live," Eleanor says.

“He usually makes it home by 12:00 or 1:00am, spending his mornings helping out his wife, who just gave birth, with house chores. In the afternoon Yoy repairs bicycles at home: this gives the family a little extra for daily living. After dinner, he prepares his rubbish cart and sets off to the main areas of Phnom Penh to scavenge."

Eleanor knows that it isn't just Yoy who struggles. "His four elder children sometimes walk the three kilometres from their village to primary school just to save on transport costs. Sometimes they help their father picking waste at night, in order to help the family get by. This highly affects their studies." Yoy admits this isn't something he wants his children to go through, but he simply doesn't have a choice.

The community Yoy’s family live in is on low-lying land. It always floods in the rainy season because there's no sewage or drainage system. "The houses are closely packed together with rubbish and recycling. In the middle of the chaos, Yoy’s home is a hut, 4m x 5m which houses Yoy, his wife and their six children. It is made from scraps of palm tree and pieces of rotting wood. An old tent covers some parts of their wall, but rainwater easily leaks through. The floor is made of fragile pieces of bamboo and wood. There are four community toilets nearby but they are dirty and unsafe so most families opt to go out to the field behind their homes. There is no safe water supply."

The family pays around £13 per month to rent this land. In Cambodia, the average annual wage is around £700. So despite the issues he faces with flooding, a huge chunk of money goes to keeping it. Although Yoy is in constant fear of eviction. Their landlord has plans to develop the land and uses this to his advantage, demanding increases in rent and preventing them from connecting to state water supplies.

"The home we live in affects every part of our lives," Eleanor says. "When it's a warm and secure place our health is protected and our children can learn and grow. A decent home creates opportunities for livelihoods to thrive. It’s the building block from where families and communities grow stronger together. This autumn, Yoy and his family will build a new, secure and healthy home with Habitat for Humanity, away from the dangers of the dump."

He says: “I wish for my children to be able to focus on their studies and to be free from threats and the polluted environment we now live in. Moving to [the Habitat for Humanity home] will give my family and me a better life. I will have peace in my mind and in heart, and we will be able to start saving.”

"That is Yoy’s story so far," Eleanor says, "and Yoy’s story is why I work for Habitat for Humanity."

You can help families in desperate need to build a decent home by giving a little over 53p per day. Visit Habit for Humanity to get more information. And thanks to Eleanor for sharing her experience.