A world where everyone has a safe & decent place to live

One of the basic human needs is the need for shelter. As a stepping stone between the UK and Australia, I had the privilege of joining a team in Indonesia for a week of building with Habitat for Humanity. This organisation provides low cost housing to those in need around the world. [My little plug... if you are interested in joining a team or able to financial support their work, check out their website... http://www.habitat.org.au/.]

[Map courtesy of Google Maps]

Our destination was the small town of Solo, located in the centre of Java. Solo is located a mere 30km from Mount Merapi, a volcano which has been active since October. Tragically the recent eruptions led to the loss of many lives. Fortunately, the area we were working in was out of the 20km exclusion zone. The main disruption for us was the closure of Yogyakarta airport on the day we were due to arrive. While the rest of the team managed to fly directly to Solo, I took a plane to Jakarta and then headed an all day train to Solo. Jakarta is a crazy & busy town. I was gobsmacked when a train zoomed past with people happily perched on the roof!! The photo to the bottom right is of Merapi as we flew out of Yogyakarta at the end of our build.

The build was a relocation project, working with the local government to relocate many houses that are currently staying at Solo River. The houses need to be moved to a new location as the river is subject to flooding each year. The house we were working on was relocated approximately 300 metres away from the river.


To optimise the available resources, the intention is to make the most of every part of the pre-existing house, down to the mortar that lay between the bricks. The team before us demolished the old house and laid down the outline of the new house. We continued the project by moving some of the materials (including tiles, mortar, wood & bamboo) from the old site. At the new site we assisted with building the new walls. This included making the cement (sifting sand & mixing by hand) and the laying of bricks. Here are just a few pics of the labourers at work...

After a long hard week of working in the tropical weather, including soaring temperatures & high humidity, we were all pretty pleased with our efforts. The house was actually starting to look like a house! Overall it was fantastic week. In addition to a little banter and plenty of laughs, working with a great bunch of people made the experience all the more enjoyable. I hope the family will enjoy their new house!