Two pilot projects are helping Habitat Guyana learn how to structure its first Habitat Resource Center. Once established, Guyana’s resource center will provide housing-related services that enable poorer families to sustainably improve their housing conditions at a pace they choose.
“These pilot projects will help us identify what communities need and will let us test the best services that address those needs,” says Rawle Small, Habitat Guyana’s national director. Support could include technical construction assistance, life-skills training and community development projects.
One of the pilot projects is under way in the indigenous village of Nappi, near the Brazilian border, where Habitat Guyana staffers are surveying housing needs and trying different types of housing solutions, including a revival of local, traditional building methods, like burnt-brickmaking. Elsewhere, Habitat is partnering with Guyana’s Ministry of Housing to help vulnerable families attain the financial literacy and training necessary to access incremental housing programs.
