Habitat for Humanity’s Build in Cong Hua

Habitat for Humanity is a well-known community service that helps people build houses. There are currently more than thirty people in this community service, which is a very big group compared to other service groups. Meetings are held every Wednesday after school and students work productively to come up with the best plans they can for special events. This community service has two trips per year (one trip per semester), where students travel around China to rebuild houses for people.

The first semester trip took place from November 4 to November 6. Nine students and two teachers participated in this trip to Cong Hua (從化). The AISG community helped Mr Li build a house by moving and lining up bricks, and working with cement. Even if the temperature reached up to 27 degrees, students and teachers did not give up and continued to work hard. Mr Steve Owen, who was in charge of this trip and the community service group, was impressed and said, “I saw everyone tired at end of all workdays; however, they were still acting polite and everyone had good attitudes.” He thinks the purpose of this trip was to give students the opportunity to do the real work of Habitat for Humanity, which is to help build homes for underprivileged families. He continued and said, “At school, we focus a lot on fundraising and the trip to Cong Hua gave our students a taste of what organization really is.” Mr Owen is looking forward to the next trip that will happen in the second semester and is hoping for more students to participate in the trip.

Carrie Lo, who is a current coordinator for this community service, has participated in this trip since her Freshman year. She was able to put herself in someone else’s shoes during this trip. She said, “The trip was really meaningful because we saw different cultures and understood what life can be like for those people.” Habitat for Humanity will continue to work hard and give a hand out to those who need their help.