Habitat for Humanity International’s new Global Village and Discovery Center gives people the chance to witness firsthand the slums of the world, and the means to help those in need. 

By Mike Bederka

After visiting the Global Village and Discovery Center, Mike Freeman and Christine Neal knew for sure the repairs on their house could wait.

In the hot August sun, they made the sticky five-hour trek across Georgia from their home in Savannah to the small town of Americus to see Habitat for Humanity International’s latest attraction. The trip proved more sobering than expected.

They walked around the six-acre site near the Habitat headquarters and viewed the sample houses that recreate the horrors and despair that come with poverty: rows of tiny, dilapidated, filth-covered homes with holes in the walls and not much more than a grimy mattress on the floor, children’s toys strewn across the narrow streets, and the strong sense that life will remain bleak if the situation doesn’t change.

But it can change. As Freeman and Neal continued their tour through the Global Village, they saw that Habitat provides solutions for people living below the poverty line. With 12 homes already on display, and three more on the way, the next exhibit demonstrates how the organization builds affordable housing around the world and how average people can help.

For Neal and Freeman, this is where the idea cemented that any personal remodeling plans didn’t need to be a priority. “We can buy 24 houses here for what it costs to finish the attic of our house,” Neal says. “You can’t justify it.”

Freeman describes the Global Village as a great awareness tool that brought him closer to a whole new world. “This is not in my reality,” he says.

Awakenings like Freeman’s mean that the Global Village, which opened in June after several years of planning and construction, is already starting to achieve its mission of opening visitors’ minds and hearts, says executive director Michelle Dalva.

Built by various volunteer groups, this educational outdoor exhibit/indoor museum is a microcosm of the work Habitat does around the world. With an identity that falls between an educational park and an expansive attraction, the organization hopes that after people visit the Global Village and gain a better understanding of poverty, they’ll be more inclined to get involved with the group by volunteering time to a local affiliate, constructing a home, or donating money to sponsor a house.

Creating an Emotional Link
Besides the walk-through “Living in Poverty” exhibit and the sample houses, the Global Village contains several other sections designed to lift the generous spirits of all who come by. In the visitor welcome center, guests learn about the history of Habitat for Humanity International—which started in 1976 and has rehabilitated more than 150,000 homes worldwide—and preview the site’s activities and landscapes.

In the nearby marketplace, a theater shows viewers how homeowners and volunteers work together to build houses, and a gallery displays photos and memorabilia from Habitat’s activities in more than 80 countries. The Exploration Center allows visitors to learn more about opportunities to help eliminate poverty through Global Village trips, volunteering, and more.

Outside by the Habitat sample homes, guests can participate in several hands-on activities, including brick making, roof tile casting, stove construction, and wood milling—all the things a volunteer might do to rebuild a real house.

Dick Kuegeman, senior consultant of the Global Village and Discovery Center, describes the interactive, up-close feel as the attraction’s critical feature. “My job is to create an emotional link with the visitors,” he says. “The children not only walk the streets and look in the buildings and read the signs; they can go in the structure, sit on a chair, and see people cooking plantains on the stove. Someday we’re going to have a high-tech, interactive indoor exhibit. I promise you that the impact of that isn’t going to be as great as a kid being able to step inside a shack that demonstrates how people really live.”

The poverty trail should humble any visitors who walk down its path, and a sign right at the beginning sets the tone for the tour—“An estimated 1.2 billion people in the world today live on less than $1 per day. Nearly 3 billion people—close to half of the world’s population—live on less than $2 per day. Home, for many families, looks something like the structures you are about to see, or worse.”

Shacks not much larger than a small bedroom sit right on top of each other. Leaves, pieces of cardboard, and a couple filthy blankets and pillows cover the floors. An old beach chair may be someone’s only piece of furniture.

One dilapidated structure has a TV set that runs off a car battery; many homes don’t have electricity. A few spiders make their home in the dingy corners. A fan missing a blade or two is rammed into a small window. A naked, dirt-covered doll is propped up alone on a bed.

There’s one small general store. Canned vegetables, a couple bars of soap, crackers, bags of rice, and candles rest in the shelves. Powdered drink mixes hang from a tiny clothesline attached to the ceiling. The “Living in Poverty” grounds are dotted by signs put up by Habitat staff, designed to elicit emotion and

provoke thought. One reads, “It’s not unusual to see light bulbs or even old broken-down television sets in homes without power. They represent the desire for a brighter tomorrow.” Another says, “What if your family lived here?”

Tour guide Helena Kallas, who came to work at the Global Village after being active in her local Habitat chapter in college, has already seen the power of the poverty exhibit. Some people are brought to tears, and on another recent trip around the complex, Kallas says one young child asked her 10 times if babies lived in such decrepit conditions.

“They didn’t quite get the concept of money, or not having enough to live on,” she says. “But the concept that poor living conditions weren’t a good thing started to sink in.”

Managing the Marketing
With an attraction focusing on poverty being such a novel concept, marketing it to the masses may seem like a tricky task. But Kuegeman says it’s not as hard as one might think. “We have such a compelling story,” he says. “We built a themed visitor experience that features an authentic replication of what poverty is like around the world, juxtaposed against our Habitat houses. It gives you something instantly to talk about.”

In fact, Kuegeman said they received several million dollars of unexpected publicity when they first opened. In an early interview, Millard Fuller, the founder and president of Habitat, said, “We’ve built a theme park that features poverty housing.” Soon, numerous mainstream journalists and TV crews picked up on the whole “slums theme park” idea.

“It opened up avenues for us around the world, literally,” Kuegeman says. BBC, CBC, Fuji TV, MSNBC, and even the Comedy Central mock news program “The Daily Show” have featured the Global Village.

The real marketing challenge is showing people that they don’t have thrill rides and cotton candy, says Jack Yager, director of marketing and brand strategy for the Global Village and Discovery Center. “There’s just a pretty heavy dose of what it’s like out there. It isn’t fantasy. It isn’t escape. But it’s not a downer. We’re not just showing you the problem, we’re showing you the solution, and how easy the solution is. When you leave here, you’re going to be much more positive about the world than when you came in.”

As for the visitors, Yager says they fit into two main categories. The first he describes as the “Habitat fan”—people regularly involved in Habitat programs and activities.

The other group constitutes the more casual guests. Americus, located about two and a half hours south of Atlanta, sits within 20 miles of several notable spots: the Andersonville National Historical Site (the site of the largest union prison camp during the Civil War), the National P.O.W. Museum, and President Jimmy Carter’s home and museum in Plains. Also, many houses, hotels, and churches on the National Register of Historic Places are just a short drive away.

People might make a day trip of it and visit all these locales. Plus, since the Interstate 75 corridor runs relatively close to the Global Village, people might stop there on their way to Florida, making it an educational roadside attraction.

“This doesn’t take the place of Disney and Universal Studios,” Kuegeman says. “This adds a meaningful adjunct to their vacation.”

Making a Difference
In addition to showing visitors the global epidemic of poverty, Habitat’s solution of affordable housing offers another incentive to the anticipated 50,000 to 75,000 yearly guests.

A small percentage of Americans hold passports, which, Kuegeman says, tells them a lot. “That validates what we might assume: We don’t visit other countries. Therefore, we don’t see how the rest of the world lives.”

The newly built Habitat sample homes come from 15 countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America. So visitors can see the world, from Guatemala to Ghana to Papua New Guinea, in a matter of minutes and experience the different building styles and materials used to construct the homes.

For example, the small Papua New Guinea home sits on stilts because it rains 10 months out of the year there, explains Kallas, the tour guide. “If it wasn’t, they would be living in a big puddle.”
The cost of building the “Living in Poverty” homes varies quite a bit. The Sri Lanka home, which is under construction, costs $1,600, while a place in Haiti runs $6,500. The houses may seem modest by American standards, but their functional purpose serves their new tenants well, Kallas says. “They don’t have huge palaces like we have here. They just need a safe place to sleep. Most of the socializing is done outside.”
In the future, the Global Village wants to build 20 additional homes, more activity centers, and eventually an outdoor bazaar. Staff members hope to have everything finished by the end of 2005, but the timeline is tentative, Kuegeman says. “We’re not going to build anything unless we have designated funds that have been raised to do this.”
The Global Village is funded separately from other Habitat programs through gifts and contributions specified for that use. No funds designated for the home-building mission of Habitat are being used to build this attraction.
When talking about money matters, Kuegeman says this is probably the smallest project he has ever worked on. “But it’s unquestionably the most important.”

The Helping Hands of Habitat
The people who benefit from Habitat probably would agree about the significance of the organization’s work. Since its inception by Millard Fuller and his wife, Linda, Habitat and its affiliates in 3,000-plus communities from 89 countries have built more than 150,000 homes with partner families. In about two years, the organization should have completed its two-hundred-thousandth house.

Currently, Guatemala is one of the biggest beneficiaries. Habitat has built more than 10,000 houses there, sheltering about 51,000 people. In India, approximately 36,000 people live in more than 7,200 Habitat homes.

The organization doesn’t give hand-outs, though. The homeowners have zero-interest mortgages, and they must put in a certain amount of “sweat equity.”

“They’re there from when the foundation is poured to when the finishing touches are put on the house,” Kallas says.

And to keep funding for projects like this going, the Global Village makes perfect sense, Yager says. He has a favorite quote from Fuller to explain this point: “People may ask why we built this,” the Habitat president says. “One word: bait. This is our way to get people to look at us a little closer. We know we have a good record when we get people in here and get them engaged.”

Dalva, the executive director, shares a similar confidence. She believes that with the aid of the Global Village and the Habitat staff and volunteers, poverty can be eliminated completely from the international landscape. “The only way is education,” she says, pointing to the shacks that stand 100 feet away. “We want this section to be the last poverty in the world.”