Women gather to build six homes for Habitat

TORONTO- Women across the city will gather over the next 11 days to build new homes for families in need.

The 4th Annual Women Build kicked off today in Toronto’s west end as part of a global campaign that brings women together from all walks of life to build six affordable homes alongside hard working, low-income families.

“Over the next 11 days there will be 1,000 women volunteering their time here and those women have been out fundraising to support these homes,” said Ene Underwood, CEO and President of Habitat For Humanity.

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Tricia Wedderburn is a single mother of four children living in a low income housing unit in an unsafe neighbourhood. Today, Tricia begins to build alongside the women volunteers who will make her dream of being a home owner a reality.

“They mean a lot to me. If it wasn’t for them, honestly, this wouldn’t be possible because they are volunteering their time to help me, you know, and it does mean a lot,” said Wedderburn.

Since 2009, 51 Habitat homes have been built for deserving families, and the impact has been tremendous.

“We know that kids marks go up when they come into a Habitat home. We know that kids feel more confident. Overall stress in the family is lower, quality of family life goes up,” said Underwood.

The partner families aren’t the only ones benefiting from the Women Build.

When you see someone that’s life is going to change unbelievably, then it becomes a real moment and all the hard work and time means nothing, because you have a woman standing in front of you that’s life is going to change, and her family’s life is going to change, and that’s just it,” said Sandra Richardson, a Women Build volunteer.