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event
shantytown
Guide to hosting a
Overview of shantytown events During a shantytown event, students spend at least one night sleeping outside in cardboard boxes or constructed shacks in order to draw attention to housing issues, advocate for affordable housing, and educate participants and visitors. The event may include one shack or many, and involve chapter members only or students from across campus. The chapter might incorporate a variety of activities, including games, a fundraising element, speakers and time for reflection. Shantytowns have been called many names: shackathon, sleep out, cardboard city, etc. Habitat for Humanity International encourages use of the term shantytown, as it best acknowledges those who live in such substandard housing throughout the world. A shantytown event can be a valuable tool for your campus chapter or Youth United group. This event can help your group:
- Educate your local community about local housing issues.
- Bring awareness to the global housing crisis.
- Share Habitat for Humanity’s mission and work.
- Advocate to change systems, policies, attitudes and institutional behaviors that lead to inadequate housing and homelessness. Your group can also educate attend- ees and visitors about how they can join the fight to eliminate poverty housing.
Shantytown: A shantytown, also commonly referred to as a slum, is defined by the United Nations as an illegal or unauthorized settlement of impoverished people, which is characterized by substan- dard housing, squalor and lack of tenure security.
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Shantytowns are real Today there are 1 billion people, one-sixth of the world’s population, living in shantytowns. Dwellings are typically made from scrap plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic. Often, shantytowns do not have adequate access to safe water, sanitation, electricity or telephone services. The number of people living in shanty- towns is expected to grow to 2 billion by 2030. Shantytowns exist worldwide. One of the largest shantytowns in the world is Orangi Township in Karachi, Pakistan, where approximately 1 million people live in only 100,000 houses. Other examples of large shantytown settlements include Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya; Dharavi in Mumbai, India; and Neza-Chalco-Itza barrio in Mexico City, Mexico.
Habitat for Humanity’s work to offer a hand up As a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry, Habitat for Humanity seeks to make simple, decent housing a matter of conscience and action in order to eliminate poverty housing from the world. Habitat for Humanity has worked in partnership with local communities, volunteers and partner families to provide more than 1.75 million people with safe, decent, affordable housing. Habitat has served families in more than 3,000 communities around the world. Internationally, many Habitat partner families come from shantytowns and urban slums. Shantytowns are not typical of the substandard conditions faced by Habitat for Humanity partner families in the United States. Currently, the only homeless popula- tions that Habitat for Humanity works with directly are those living outside of the United States and Canada. This is an important distinction to recognize in planning, publicizing and holding the event. As ambassadors of Habitat for Humanity, it is important to represent Habitat for Humanity appropriately and to expose your local community to a realistic represen- tation of the housing crisis many people face throughout the world.
Shacks fill the Las Victorias shantytown on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salva- dor’s capital.
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- Invitations to other student organizations or local organizations with like- minded missions.
- Asking professors and teachers to join you or tell their classes about the event.
Collect materials and supplies Ask local appliance and department stores for leftover boxes well in advance, so they can save you boxes for your event. Make sure that you have a place to store boxes until the day of the event. Don’t forget about masking tape, posters and markers for signs. If you plan to have food for your event, decide what type of food you would like to provide and whether you want to make it part of the shantytown experience. Deter- mine your budget and decide whether you will ask for donations.
Hold the event You can have a variety of activities during the event to educate participants and passers-by. Consider the following:
- Host a speaker. Invite speakers to discuss the issues of substandard housing and the mission and efforts of Habitat for Humanity. Speakers might include: — Representatives from your local affiliate or other social agencies. — Habitat homeowners. — School faculty. — Local government figures. — Chapter or Youth United group members.
- Organize a Habitat trivia or bingo game. Come up with creative ways to engage your participants that are fun and also informative.
- Host a concert. Plan a benefit concert for your chapter near your shantytown. Invite campus bands to perform.
- Write letters. Hold a letter-writing campaign. Write letters to your elected of- ficials advocating affordable housing legislation.
- Raise money. You might: — Have participants collect pledges for each hour they spend outside during the event. — Make donation jars available to collect contributions from passers-by. — Identify faculty and staff who are willing to sleep out if the chapter is able to collect a certain amount of money in their name. — Charge a fee for student groups to build a shanty. — Turn it into a competition, giving awards for those who have the best design, most popular, etc.). Charge an entry fee for those who want to participate.
- Give them the facts. Educate participants and passers-by about what Habitat does by sharing information about the need. Collect statistics on housing, homelessness and Habitat statistics ahead of time, and share this information during the event. You might have participants: — Hand out fliers about substandard housing and Habitat, and what they can do. — Talk with anyone who walks by your display. — Make signs, posters and sandwich boards with housing statistics and ideas for action. — Spray-paint facts about poverty housing onto the cardboard shanties. — Write facts with chalk on the concrete surrounding your event.
We made the event much
more public by engaging
community leaders and
holding the event off-
campus at the downtown
community park.
We also attracted many
interested people by having
entertainment: jazz band,
DJ, national award-win-
ning slam poet and three
Habitat partner families
share the meaning of their
experience as HFH home
owners. Also, we were able
to obtain four new appli-
cations for possible future
partner families.
— Spoon River Commu-
nity College, Ill.
- Don’t forget pictures. Display pictures and news clippings of your Habitat chapter, including work projects, fundraisers and educational events. Ask your affiliate for pictures or a display from its efforts at the local level.
Reflect Reflection is extremely important for an event like this and allows participants to think critically about their experience. Facilitate a reflection session in the morn- ing to help people process and walk away with a deeper understanding of housing issues. Possible reflection questions:
- How did you feel during the event? Did your feelings change over the course of the night?
- What did you miss most while staying in the shantytown?
- What surprised you about the experience?
- How is this experience similar to living in a real shantytown? How is it different?
As a facilitator, it is important to remind the participants that what they experi- enced during the event is not homelessness. Remind your participants that nearly 1 billion people worldwide currently live in substandard conditions with minimal or no access to safe water and food, and do not have the opportunity to leave the situa- tion after a few hours. Let the participants know what they can do after the shantytown event is over to continue supporting efforts to end poverty housing. Be sure to provide information about getting involved with your group and the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate.
Follow up after the event After your event, make sure that you look to the future with responsibility:
- Clean up the area.
- Send out thank-you notes to all supporters.
With an estimated population of more than 1 million people, Kibera, in Nairobia, Kenya, is the largest slum in all of Africa.
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Resources
Understanding poverty issues
- World Habitat Day handbook: http://my.habitat.org/GlobalLink. aspx?GID=g30f
- 2010 Habitat for Humanity shelter report: http://www.habitat.org/gov/take_ac- tion/shelter_report_2010.aspx
- “The Martinez Tale: A look at shelter, settlement and sustainable livelihoods” from Habitat for Humanity Latin America/Caribbean: http://www.habitat.org/ habitat_learns/martinez_tale/index.html
Publicity
- Habitat for Humanity International’s affiliate guide to working with the media: http://my.habitat.org/GlobalLink.aspx?GID=g30de
- Habitat for Humanity International’s affiliate guide to social media: http:// my.habitat.org/GlobalLink.aspx?GID=g30de
Educational and advocacy activities
- Habitat for Humanity’s youth programs advocacy activities: http://www.habitat. org/youthprograms/parent_teacher_leader/resources/parent_teacher_leader_ resources.aspx
- Habitat for Humanity’s Government Relations and Advocacy “Take action” tools: http://www.habitat.org/gov/take_action/default.aspx
Images and articles
- “Dharavi: Mumbai’s shadow city” from National Geographic (May 2007, Mark Jacobson): http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/dharavi-mumbai- slum/jacobson-text
- “The places we live,” a photo essay on shantytowns by Jonas Bendiksen: http:// www.theplaceswelive.com
Habitat for Humanity’s impact
- Habitat for Humanity homeowners’ stories: http://www.habitat.org/faces_places/
- Habitat for Humanity’s photo gallery: http://www.habitat.org/photogallery/ album.aspx
- Habitat for Humanity’s video gallery: http://www.habitat.org/videogallery/de- fault.aspx
- Habitat for Humanity U.S. affiliate fact sheet: http://my.habitat.org/GlobalLink. aspx?GID=g2f
Reflection
- Habitat for Humanity’s guide for reflective discussion: http://my.habitat.org/ GlobalLink.aspx?GID=
- The Corporation for National and Community Service reflection toolkit: http://nationalserviceresources.org/files/legacy/filemanager/download/615/ nwtoolkit.pdf
