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Habitat for Humanity works. Since 1976, the global organization has
built and rehabilitated more than 220,000 houses, sheltering more
than one million people in thousands of communities in North
America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern and
Western Europe, and throughout the Asia-Pacific region including the
Philippines. These simple yet decent houses are built with the help
of beneficiaries themselves as well as volunteers and donors. They
are sold to beneficiaries at no profit through affordable,
zero-interest, inflation-adjusted mortgage loans. They built it,
they earned it, they own. And now Habitat for Humanity gets a boots
with power construction tools.
Robert Bosch Inc., sole Philippine distributor
of Bosch Power Tools, renews its commitment to Habitat for Humanity
via a hands-over of cordless power tools for the Baseco Bagong Buhay
Project in Manila. The pledge was received by Friends of Habitat
Chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala and Co-Chairman Margie Moran-Floirendo
during the organization’s “celebration of commitment.”
In the aftermath of several fires that
practically wiped out the Baseco urban settlement for some 2,600
migrant families, Bosch employees institutionalized a yearly
tradition of “bayanihan” and contribute their time and
technology to building homes for Habitat. In 2007, Habitat
turned-over the first 1,000 houses to new home owners in Baseco.
Located at the heart of Manila’s port area,
the Baseco Bagong Buhay project is a 15-hectare swamp land that is
subdivided into 2,800 individual lots on which prefabricated houses
are built. Given the precut steel frames and fiber cement board
walls of the housing units, Bosch cordless technology and impact
drivers are ideal working tools for efficient house
construction—“tools that will continue to build Habitat’s next
1,000 housing units,” says on-site engineer, Noel Zeta.
“Bosch commends the Habitat for Humanity and
the Friends of Habitat for their selfless hard work,” says Mr.
Odenthal. “We likewise congratulate the organization on its
landmark achievements, particularly in providing over 1,000 low cost
houses to the Baseco community.”
Robert Bosch Inc., local flagship of Robert
Bosch GmbH (Germany), in 1999 pledged its support to The Habitat for
Humanity, which aims to preserve human dignity through urban
development and providing adequate housing for the poor.
Since then, the company has made it a yearly
tradition for new and old employees alike to build houses for the
less privileged. It has also provided Bosch power tools to help the
organization in various home-building activities.
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