Seventy-four-year-old Tran Kim Xuyen looks forward to better health in a new home built by Habitat for Humanity volunteers in southern Vietnam. She used to worry a lot about annual repairs to her old house, made of tin walls, thatched roof and untreated wooden beams. Damage to her house from fallen tree branches and flooding after heavy rains were just some of her problems. “It was not much better in the dry season as the house is suffocatingly hot,” said Xuyen who lives in Tan Hoa commune, Tan Thanh district, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. (NOTE: Tran is her family name, middle name Kim and first name is Xuyen.)

With each brick laid, each hand extended, each open heart and each smile and act of kindness, the local and international Habitat for Humanity volunteers keep on being our most treasured resource and valued source of inspiration. They keep embodying our shared realization that attaining a world where everyone has a decent place to live is more than a dream. It is a reality in the making, built by common purpose, under the scorching Vietnamese sun, the torrential Mekong Delta Monsoons or while standing in mosquito-infested flood waters.

It was an exciting time and full of beautiful memories back in August when HFH Vietnam and its volunteers from many countries around the world gathered in the Mekong Big Builds to help 25 low-income families build new homes. This has marked a turning point in the lives of these families who now have secure and stable houses to move into and to move forward for brighter futures.

Here it is again! World Toilet Day, celebrated on November 19 annually all over the world to underline the need for safe sanitation. The recurrence might evoke chuckling or laughter; however, adequate and safe toilets are an increasingly serious matter especially when considering that almost 40% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to this very basic right.