The 2010 UNC-Chapel Hill Habitat for Humanity: Thailand Team is a group of twelve, earnest, hardworking volunteers that will travel to Thailand this summer to spend two weeks building a new home for a deserving Thai family. The recipient family is selected through a detailed application process based on different forms of economic and social criteria. It is our mission, as students, to raise enough money to cover the expenses needed to construct a new home and offer an affordable loan for the chosen family. The cost of the entire trip plus building materials is roughly estimated to be about $30,000. We are only asking for charitable donations, however, to help cover the expense of building supplies, skilled management, and an affordable low-interest loan, which is about $12,000. We desperately need your help. We will be working around the clock, sponsoring different local events and working part-time jobs in order to pay for air fare, lodging and living expenses, but we cannot fund the entire trip off of these alone.

    While Thailand is unarguably one of the most beautiful and exquisite places on Earth, there are millions of hardworking people there striving to scrape by in utter impoverishment. The late industrial boom of giant commercial hubs such as Bangkok, Udon Thani and Chiang Mai has swollen the population densities for these respective areas and consequently pushed millions of unfortunate inhabitants to the suburbs. The suburbs and surrounding countryside in Thailand are one of the hardest places to live on Earth. Thousands of people live in anything they can find— cardboard boxes, metal scraps from construction sites, wobbly lean-tos on riverbanks, or many times even just out in the open. The change that one single house provides for a Thai family is truly unbelievable. Help us make this change.

    We are a group of college kids attempting to making a difference in the world. We’re not veteran contractors and we’re certainly not an exceptional construction crew—we’re just normal students—trying to make an impact that improves others’ lives. We are an eclectic bunch of undergrads out of UNC-Chapel Hill all bound by the same genuine conviction— that every man, woman and child, regardless of race, religion or social standing, should have a safe, affordable home to live in.

    We have a long and daunting financial journey ahead of us. While we will work nonstop for the next eight months, we cannot reach this goal from mere campus events and odd jobs alone. We need your donations. All donations will help us fulfill our mission by directly paying for the construction and skilled labor of a new home. Please donate through the link below and help us reach our goal.