By Sarah Pye
Living Editor
At 7 a.m. Saturday, most people on campus were likely still snuggles cozily under their covers. But one group of service-oriented students was already gathered down in Rho parking lot at the break of day, ready to attend Pepperdine’s first Habitat for Humanity build this semester.
Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit organization that seeks to build affordable housing for low-income families around the world. Though the Pepperdine Volunteer Center has sent student volunteers to help with Habitat builds for several years, this year, Habitat at Pepperdine is taking on a new look.
This year, students who are interested in the program are encouraged to join the Habitat for Humanity club, new on campus this semester, according to senior Giuseppe Nespoli, the SARAH PYE/LIVING EDITOR
Pepperdine Volunteer Center’s
volunteer coordinator for Habitat.
Nespoli said that in previous years, Pepperdine students have only been involved helping out with Habitat builds. With the advent of the club on campus, students will have the opportunity to become more fully involved with the organization, participating in fund-raising events as well as helping with builds.
“I first got (involved with Habitat) because it was one of the programs that I could do the most with expanding and getting the word out about it,” Nespoli said.
For their first weekend of building, Nespoli and six other Pepperdine students went to Watts, where they assisted at two different build sites. The students left Pepperdine at 7 a.m. and returned at approximately 3 p.m., a typical workday for the program.
The students spent the majority of their day digging drainage trenches in the front and back yards of one of the build sites.
According to Habitat Site Supervisor Nelson Perez, this was the same site featured on the popular television program “American Idol,” when finalists from the show’s first season were sent there to construct the back wall of the house.
The house, now complete, was only in need of proper drainage before being able to pass its final inspection, and the Pepperdine volunteers were able to bring it a few steps closer to that goal.
“I feel really good about helping out people in need,” said sophomore Giovahn Barboza, one of Satuday’s Habitat volunteers. “We’re really giving back.”
Sophomore Jason Stevenson agreed.
“We’re thinking of someone other than ourselves,” Stevenson said.
Perez, 21, who has been employed by Habitat for two years, said he is always grateful for the help of volunteers.
“It does surprise me how many nice people there are that come out here and do something for someone else,” Perez said.
He added that, though unpaid, volunteers do not walk away from their time with Habitat unfulfilled.
“When they help us in building these houses, they’ll learn certain tricks of the trade that they can use on their own houses,” Perez said.
Perez also explained that, though Habitat provides housing to those who might otherwise not be able to afford it, the organization is most certainly not giving anything away.
Families must apply to receive a Habitat house, and are chosen on the basis of whether they will be able to make the required monthly mortgage payments on the houses. The houses are sold to the families at no profit, with no-interest loans.
Once selected, these “partner families” must also put in 400 hours of work, called “sweat equity,” building their own or any of the Habitat houses. And, according to Perez, once they move in, families are required to live in their house for 20 years, without selling or renting it out.
“Nothing’s given to them,” Perez said. “We’re not making them rich, we’re just helping them have an affordable home.”
October 02, 2003
