Habitat for Humanity India

Habitat for Humanity India (HFH India) is part of Habitat for Humanity International - a global non-governmental organization that seeks to eliminate poverty housing guided by the vision, "A world where everyone has a decent place to live". Habitat India began operations in 1983 and is today one of Habitat for Humanity International's largest programs in the Asia pacific region.

The organization has an active presence in 20 states and works in partnership with local, grassroots, non-governmental organizations and micro finance institutions throughout India to provide improved housing and sanitation solutions. HFH India's areas of focus are housing, sanitation, disaster response and access to water. Sanitation is closely related to housing and well-being. In 2012 HFH India began working towards providing improved access to sanitation facilities.

Since India's sanitation needs are vast, HFH India strongly works towards collaborating with organizations, corporates and most importantly with the communities. In the sanitation sphere HFH India provides families with sanitation units and goes beyond by working with communities to bring behavior change and supporting the economically active poor and disaster affected with access to credit facilities and technical advice for the construction sanitation units.

As of April 2016, HFH India has touched the lives of 1,34,893 families and 15,106 homes were supported with individual household latrines and 23,15,638 people through our behavior change communication and awareness programs.

HFH India Sanitation Programs:

Sensitise To Sanitise (S2S) Coalition
In order to address all elements related to sanitation, Habitat for Humanity India initiated the S2S Coalition. Its mandate is to work collaboratively with other organisations and actively seek ways to enhance the well-being of marginalized communities by providing access to sanitation facilities. This would be a coalition of nation-wide institutions with complementing skills and capabilities, coming together to address the eco-system of sanitation. The coalition seeks to systematically work on projects towards achieving Open Defecation Free districts in the country.

The coalition brings together such individuals and organizations with complementary skills in areas such as Practitioners, Technology Providers, Research Agencies, Donors and Funding Agencies, Micro finance companies and International NGOs.

Objectives of the Coalition
- Partnerships: Enable partnerships between organizations working in the area of total Sanitation.
- Advocacy: Engaging multiple stakeholders through networking and creating platforms for policy implementation and change.
- Implementation: Planning and implementation of total sanitation projects.
- Knowledge sharing: Offer knowledge sharing platforms for exchanging ideas on technologies and innovations and awareness building.
- Market approach: Promote micro lending among communities to gain access to sanitation.
- Fundraising: Enable joint fundraising initiatives from multiple stakeholders like corporates, High Net worth Individuals, Foundations etc.

Through the setting up of the S2S Coalition we have helped build 1,07,764 toilets in total and 1406 school sanitation units and 175 community toilets. Through the coalition we have achieved an impact of over 27,75,954 people.

Sensitise To Sanitise (S2S) Campaign
Habitat India launched the Sensitise to Sanitise (S2S) campaign to provide sanitation units in households, communities and schools and to conduct behavioral change communication to ensure usage and maintenance of the facilities.

The S2S campaign was launched in October 2014 and continues to help families bring social change. This campaign is run on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with people's involvement i.e. it is people owned and people driven.

The organization believes in working collaboratively with the communities and actively seeking ways to enhance the well-being of marginalized communities by providing access to sanitation facilities and ensuring behavioral change among communities on the importance of WASH. We believe that children can be effective agents of change and can influence and educate families in issues of sanitation and hygiene. Initiating change at the household level can bring further ripple effect throughout the community.

Countries of activity

Location of projects and headquarters

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International NGO