Indian River Habitat For Humanity crew heads to Dominican Republic to wield some hammers

By Jan Lindsey

Posted October 15, 2009 at 3:08 p.m.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A team of 10 will be leaving on a flight from Fort Lauderdale Friday afternoon for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

They are a build crew from Indian River Habitat for Humanity and they will spend the next week helping to put up simple homes in San Juan de la Maguana, a town about a three-hour drive northwest of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola, off the eastern end of Cuba. The Dominican Republic shares the island with Haiti.

“I consider it an opportunity,” said Cindy Hazelwood, a Habitat volunteer and a member of the organization’s Women Build effort. “I love building, and people.”

She will get both on this trip.

Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical Christian ministry based in Americus, Ga., and builds homes all over the world with donated dollars and labor. Recipients of the home must invest sweat equity in their new house and pay an interest-free mortgage to help Habitat recover costs.

In an underdeveloped country, that mortgage payment may be a bag of cement for the next project, said Andy Bowler, president and CEO of Indian River Habitat.

Each Habitat affiliate, such as the organization in Indian River County, is expected to tithe to the international effort, known as Global Village, as well as build at home. How they calculate their tithe and how much they give are up to them, Bowler said.

“We are encouraged to look at things globally,” he said.

The Indian River Habitat donated cash to a building effort in Beius, Romania, several years ago and then sent a crew to the country to help with construction.

Money was sent to the Dominican Republic as well.

“It’s always nice to see where your dollars are going and see the people,” Bowler said. “It’s always rewarding to see the joy on the face of the homeowner when you hand them the keys. That is a universal feeling for someone who has been living in deplorable conditions.

“It’s just a little bit more pronounced when the volunteers are coming from thousands of miles away.”

Build crew members pay their own way. This crew will be staying at Solid Rock Mission during their five days in San Juan de la Maguana, where construction is already under way.

“It’s not a blitz build; we’re not building it in a week,” Hazelwood said. “We just do whatever is needed when we arrive. We always want to plan every bit of our time.”

It will be nice, she said, to go with the flow.

Source:  http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/oct/15/indian-river-habitat-for-humanity-crew-heads-to/