Diocese of Down & Dromore

At the beginning of September the rector of Hillsborough, the Revd John Dinnen and his wife Jane, set off with a team from the parish to work in Ghana with Habitat for Humanity.

Hillsborough Parish Church has, over the last number of years, developed close links with Habitat for Humanity, a non-denominational Christian housing charity dedicated to eliminating poverty housing worldwide.  Habitat renovates and builds simple, decent homes with the help of homeowner families, through volunteer labour and donations of money and materials. 

In the last few years men and women from the parish have supported Habitat for Humanity's house building initiatives here in Northern Ireland. Teams from the parish have also travelled to Hungary to participate in house building programmes in Szarvas in the east of the country near the border with Romania. 

This year, a team of 21 men and women (young and not so young!) travelled further afield - to West Africa - arriving in Ghana.  After an overnight stop in the capital, Accra, they travelled by coach to Assin Fosu in Central Ghana where they were based for two weeks on the Habitat building programme. 

In Africa alone 40% of African urban households are living below the poverty line.  That represents only a fraction of the 1.2 billion people worldwide living on the equivalent of less than US$1 per day.  The Hillsborough Parish Team's objective is to make a difference in the lives of a few people, at least.  No doubt the team were also enriched by the experience.  People often ask - what's the point of sending a team when you could simply send the money!  Habitat's philosophy is simple - people don't need ‘hand outs' - they need ‘a hand up' and, to give ‘a hand up', it has to be delivered in person!