Maari Village Project
This group of 24 families have supported and encouraged each other for many years, working diligently to find a way out of the crushing poverty in which they find themselves. Each family has at least one member who has a disability. The group chose as its motto, “Love is able”, to signify that they would work in love to find solutions to the many challenges they face every day. These people truly were the “poorest of the poor”.
The families formed the Maari Able Group and in 1999 they met Mary Steiner and began working with Give Us Wings. Initially, Give Us Wings helped the families to obtain desperately needed health care, education, organic farming training and business training.
The members of the Maari Group dreamed that each family would have their own, clean safe house in which to raise their family. Give Us Wings, with the help of donors in the United States, has helped the Group build 24 beautiful houses in a community where they can continue to live together and support each other. They are scheduled to move into their new community in June 2012!
Thanks to a generous donor in the United States, all 24 families will soon receive a “Building Business for Family Sustainability” micro-finance loan. Over the next two years, Give Us Wings’ business consultants will assist these families in developing and executing sustainable business plans. They will receive a combination of loans and grants that they will use to finance a new business or expand an existing one.
After years of hard work and perseverance, the members of the Maari Able Group, with the help of Give Us Wings and our supporters, will soon realize their dreams of living in lovely new homes and having access to the resources they need to build businesses and sustain themselves and their families into the future!
Houses in the Maari Housing Estate.
The people have planted trees near their new homes. One day these trees will provide cooling shade for the houses and the people who live there,
Washing room modified to accommodate disabled residents.
Many of the residents of the Maari Housing Estates have some kind of disability. Give Us Wings and the Maari group ensured that the facilities were built to be handicap accessible.
Handicap accessible toilet.
Bricks for the homes are laid out to bake in the sun before they are used to construct the homes and other structures.
Panoramic view of the new Maari Village.
One of the young residents who will soon be moving into a safe and secure new home.
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Members of the Maari Able Group.
24 supportive families working together to improve their lives
Tour of Maari Housing Estates.
MP Sanjay Tanna and Give Us Wings Programme Coordinator would Maari Village.
One of the new toilets.
The new Maari Village.
One of the Maari Village toilet blocks.
Atim inspecting her new house.
Atim and her family have been living in squalid conditions. But after years of hard work and help from Give Us Wings, she and her family will soon be moving into their new home.
Atim in front of her new washroom.
Atim in front of her new kitchen.
A new toilet in the Maari Housing Estates.
For many in the Maari Village this is the first time they have had regular access to toilet facilities. Appropriate sanitation will help the Maari residents to stay healthier.
Inspection of the toilet block.
Inspection of the Maari Villlage.
Inspecting the toilet block. Proper sanitation is extremely important.
