Perreault Magazine - 54 -
When someone asks you what World Housing is, how do you explain it to them?
“To create social change by connecting the world to be a better community”. We do this by providing housing to those we see as the most in need – people that live in and around garbage dumps. Our social change model is relatively simple: In the developed world we create business partnerships and transfer the financial contributions to a non-government organization who we partner with to build homes. The homes are then gifted to qualified, deserving people that are surviving by scavenging garbage in dump communities.
At the core of World Housing is creating social change for our audience. In the case of the slum communities we serve, it’s about moving a qualified family from complete squalor to a stable home while helping them achieve an independent life through education, nutrition and health care programs offered by our NGO partner. While receiving a home is just one piece of the puzzle, it often becomes a visible cue that there is hope for a better life.
At home in the first world, we are about providing a connection for people to see the world differently and empower our business partners and donors to believe they can have a real, measurable impact on others.
Blake from TOMS seemed to spark some of the inspiration to start World Housing. Who are some of the other individuals that really impacted and inspired your decision to start World Housing?
First of all, without meeting Blake there would be no World Housing. Blake was not only an inspiration, but opened up a whole new world of amazing new relationships that come with starting a social venture like World Housing. There are two people we have met along the way that really have made an impact.
First, Scott Neeson, the founder of Cambodia Children’s Fund is the most selfless, dedicated person I have ever met. He has single handedly improved the quality of life for people living in the garbage dump community in Phnom Penh. Scott’s story is so unique – he went from a life of excess in Hollywood and consciously gave everything up to help people living in a garbage dump.
©Scott Wilkins