Building Hope for Yangshuo Villagers

On March 17, 26 students departed for the Habitat for Humanity build in Yangshuo, Guangxi province. The purpose of this event was to build the proper shelter for those who are underprivileged and are unable to afford their daily expenses. The Habitat group provided service and materials for building these homes as well as a lump sum of money that the impoverished community can share to purchase their necessities. In fact, all of the fundraisers that the Habitat for Humanity organization has held this year have been with the intention of funding this build.

The Habitat build was very enlightening for several students as it provided insight into Habitat’s true purpose. This year, the students contributed to the foundation of a house for a woman who suffered from a degenerative disease in her legs, which made her unable to build the house herself.

The students were more than happy to help and were very proud of the fact that their actions were making a difference. Christopher Renfrow, one of the coordinators of Habitat for Humanity said that “the feeling of being able to help was the greatest reward of the trip.” Despite the fact that the students did not profit from the build, they gained a valuable experience. Often the feeling of helping those who are underprivileged is a gift greater than gold.

Despite the feeling of helping the impoverished being very rewarding, the students felt that if there had been a greater amount of work to do they would have felt more useful. While the students had helped lay the foundation for the house, they had not actually built the structure. Some students did not have jobs to do at certain times due to the fact that laying the foundation only required a small workforce. The students without any jobs felt as if they were not playing much of a role in the community, and had not fully paid the village community back for their kindness. Some of the students, such as Jennifer Yang also felt that “the villagers were more experienced and proficient as the construction tasks than the students.” The town’s preference to perform the construction themselves and the lack of construction tasks made some of the Habitat build attendees doubt their usefulness.

The Habitat build has helped students realize the hardships of being impoverished and the worth of having a roof over their heads. Despite not having enough work to do on the build, they still felt very proud of helping the impoverished in any way that they could have.