Silicon Valley Father & Daughter Travel to Ethiopia With Habitat for Humanity

 Mountain View residents Don and Caroline Aoki recently traveled to Bisidimo, Ethiopia to participate in a Habitat for Humanity Global Village build from April 11 to 20. 

The father and daughter team, along with 12 other volunteers from four different countries, joined in an effort to help eliminate poverty housing worldwide. 

Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program gives volunteers the hands-on opportunity to help build simple, decent housing in communities around the world. Global Village volunteers experience another culture as they build houses and hope. 

The need for housing in Ethiopia is great, and the local Habitat for Humanity Ethiopia affiliate is continuously working to achieve Habitat’s goal of eliminating poverty housing worldwide. 

The Global Village participants worked alongside Ethiopian skilled workers as well as the future homeowners of Bisidimo village, which was originally formed as a leper colony. 

Volunteers constructed homes in an effort to provide improved housing for eight families whose family members suffer severe disabilities as a result of leprosy. 

Don is a technology executive, passionate about community service, serving on the boards of the Foothill De Anza Foundation, CHAC and Poston Community Alliance. 

His daughter Caroline, a junior at The King’s Academy, is a veteran of two other housing construction projects in Tecate, Mexico. 

 In Ethiopia, Don and Caroline dug post holes for a new house, cut rebar, applied chika (mud and straw) to build up walls, transported stones and hand-mixed concrete for new latrines. They also enjoyed feeding hyenas, drinking delicious Ethiopian coffee and playing with the children of the village. 

“Leprosy is a progressive but treatable disease. However stigma and discrimination persist even after a patient is cured, so people flee their communities and resettle in slum villages where they earn next to no income.  Having a safe, decent home, built together with neighborhood volunteers, allows vulnerable families to re-join their communities. Caroline and I are proud to have participated in this effort, and will continue our work stateside to support the people of Bisidimo village,” said Aoki.

Since its founding in Americus, Georgia, USA in 1976, Habitat for Humanity has built more than 350,000 houses in more than 90 countries, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 1.75 million people. For more information about the Global Village program, visitwww.habitat.org/gv or contact Habitat for Humanity International at 1-229-924-6935, ext. 7530.