On Christmas morning Nicola and I were in the kitchen preparing Christmas lunch when we heard the noise of running water from above. Then we saw the water running down the walls from the ceiling. We assumed we had a burst pipe caused by the thaw after the big freeze that preceded it. So we turned the water off. Would it also affect our gas fired central heating system? I phoned Scottish Gas and I was directed through to a call centre, possibly in India. After some deliberation and consultation with others I was told to switch the heating off. Presumably in India they did not appreciate the affect this would have on us in Scotland in mid winter! Thankfully, I managed to get a hold of our local plumber, even on Christmas Day, and he told me that this was nonsense. The central heating was a sealed system separate from the main water supply and would work fine notwithstanding that we had turned the water off. So at least we had heat, if not water. Our neighbours kindly supplied us with buckets of water so we survived Christmas Day and ‘Boxing Day’ (I understand that Boxing Day cannot fall on a Sunday) without water from our taps.

The plumber arrived this morning and discovered that we did not in fact have a burst pipe (as such). A pipe that carries water from the roof has an old connection that comes within the wall cavity but has been blocked off (after the pipe became redundant and had been cut from whatever item it used to drain water from within the house). The lead that sealed it was not holding it watertight. The main pipe down the side of the house was completely frozen. As the snow thawed on the roof it was running down the outside pipes but backing up when it hit the frozen pipe and ended up coming inside the house! It was just a coincidence that it stopped coming in when we turned the water off at the mains – so we could have had water running from our taps on Christmas Day and ‘Boxing Day’ after all!

Living with water from buckets for two days was not a great hardship compared with the problems the current weather has caused for many. We did have to become much more economic with our use of water and it did make us think of our friends in 22 de Enero. I blogged on 17 November 2009 that “The water that the residents have access to is largely underground and away from the housing area, making it difficult to find potable water for family consumption.” We helped Germán to build a water tower but many families had to walk some distance to fill buckets of water and carry them back to their homes. In Glasgow we were able to simply pop next door.

International research and statistics show that:-

• One out of every three city dwellers – nearly a billion people – lives in a slum. (Slum indicators include: lack of water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, non-durable structures and insecure tenure.) (UN-Habitat: 2006)
• UN-Habitat has reported that because of poor living conditions children in slums are more likely to die from water-borne and respiratory illness. (UN-Habitat: 2006)

Habitat for Humanity agree with the Department for International Development (DFID) that it should be "our moral and religious duty to ensure that we are part of a world where no one has to live in poverty; A world in which all have access  to food, shelter, clean water; to a livelihood, health and education; A world in which the rights and dignity of every woman, man and child to live life to the full are respected". (DFID Target 2015, halving world poverty. A Shared Vision of Reducing World Poverty).

Next time you fill a kettle from a tap, run a bath, have a shower or flush a toilet think of those less fortunate in the world who do not have this luxury that we take for granted. You can help by Just Giving.

Visit Habitat for Humanity Argentina

Today is World Habitat Day.

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. The idea is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all, to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

This year the theme is “Better City, Better Life” to specifically raise awareness about the need for sustainable poverty housing in urban regions. This is integral to the housing situation in Argentina. 4 out of 10 Argentines live in indecent living conditions, much of it in cramped tenements and precarious shanties in city slums. Over the next 30 years, the urban population of developing countries will hit 4 billion.

Help Habitat for Humanity Argentina implement housing solutions to put into place a sustainable system of poverty housing.

Read more about World Habitat Day

Download the World Habitat Day Brochure (PDF)

I had the pleasure of being invited as a VIP guest speaker to the Thrive Business Breakfast Exclusive Event: Corporate Social Responsibility this morning at The Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh. It was an early start on a very wet morning for me to get to Edinburgh from Glasgow for 8am. After breakfast each delegate had 1 minute to introduce themselves around the table with me and the other two VIP speakers then having 8 minutes to talk about Corporate Social Responsibility.

I explained (in more than 8 minutes!) how through Inksters I had been able to promote our charity work in Argentina in a way that would not otherwise have been possible. This had resulted in corporate sponsorship, individual donations and raised awareness on a scale that benefitted both Inksters and Habitat for Humanity. I showed the delegates an InkstersGive T-Shirt and gave them all a booklet to take away on our Global Village Challenge.

The other two Guest speakers, Dr Michael Groves (Managing Director of Great Circle) and Andrew Mason (Group Sustainability Manager at Royal Bank of Scotland) spoke on sustainability.

It was great to be able to bring our work in Argentina to the attention of a diverse group of businesses and charities in Edinburgh. I made my way back to Glasgow in the knowledge that the very early start to the day had been well worth it.

Inksters Solicitors have been nominated for Corporate Social Responsibility Firm of the Year at the Law Awards of Scotland 2010. This is in respect of Inksters' support of Habitat for Humanity and the Global Village Challenge in Argentina which you can, of course, read all about on this blog and at the main InkstersGive website.

The Law Awards of Scotland recognises and rewards the very best legal firms and celebrates those who have shown outstanding performance in their field.

The Law Awards of Scotland undertake a rigorous research process in order to identify who are the top law firms in Scotland. Inksters' recently achieved that by becoming a Recommended Law Firm 2010 and have now gone on to receive not only this nomination, for Corporate Social Responsibility Firm of the Year, but also for Marketing Team of the Year.

The winners will be revealed at The Law Awards of Scotland awards ceremony to be held on Thursday 16th September 2010 at The Hilton Hotel, Glasgow. For the full list of nominations see: The Law Awards of Scotland: 2010 Finalists

This blog post will provide a recap of the run up to our Habitat for Humanity Global Village Challenge and our time building in Buenos Aires. It will be a useful reference point for the 70 blog posts that have preceded this one.

This Blog and the inkstersgive.com website were officially launched on 23 September 2009 with thanks to corporate sponsor, Innovation Digital.

There is a link from the InkstersGive site to our JustGiving  page, and it was not long before the donations started rolling in. This included our first US donation from Richard Prickman of Bitcher & Prickman. However, he was not allowed to outdo his Partner, Beatrice Bitcher. There followed more donations from my Twitter followers including generous corporate sponsors: The Trial Warrior, Silverman Sherliker and Valentilaw. The generosity of Twitter followers was overwhelming as seen in Fundraising and the Power of Twitter and #FollowFriday for Just Giving.

We had asked for help to cover our hard hats with logos and were having good success. In addition to those corporate sponsors already mentioned we had Inksters, Page\Park, Harley Haddow and Theatreplan on board. They were to be joined by Barr Brady, Oce and Jeffrey Aitken.

We were getting plenty of attention in the legal and architectural press, all helping to raise awareness and encourage donations.

In amongst all this we started Spanish classes with a teacher from Argentina at Centro Español Loco. We were to go on to take 5 Spanish lessons in total. Our teacher ended up joining our La Bordona Tango class at Sloans.

I read a Chinese Poem from 700BC. Our T-Shirts were printed and offered for sale. We were all set to head to Argentina.

Nicola and I arrived in Argentina a couple of days ahead of the rest of our Group. This gave us a chance to acclimatise and recover from the jet lag before beginning building work. It also meant we experienced floods in Buenos Aires on our first day there.

When the rest of the Group (13 of us in total) arrived from the UK it was straight into Orientation and learning about the 22 de Enero neighbourhood that we would be working in.

Then building works commenced. By the end of day 4 which consisted of painting, digging holes and moving concrete fence posts I was very tired but equally elated. Our active filled days passed by quickly with a brick wall, yellow paint and a concrete column, not to mention a higher wall, more yellow paint and a bedroom extension.

We were also able to celebrate the work we had done with the community when we attended the inauguration of the room we painted yellow.

On a day where work was rained off we had the opportunity to visit the Recovering Urban Homes Project and learn of the other work Habitat for Humanity was doing within Buenos Aires. On the way Jas met Maradona in La Boca.

On day 8 and on day 9 we were given time off for rest and relaxation. This allowed us to see Buenos Aires and take in some Tango.

Then back to work and Nicola and I worked together one morning on Tito’s wall. Nicola spent most of her time in La Matanza building Tito’s wall and became a very accomplished bricklayer as a result. I moved around more to work on different projects such as building Miguel’s walls, moving earth at Alejandro’s property, moving rubble at Antoñin’s house, and building Germán’s tower. This gave me a good perspective on the different living conditions and family units that exist in 22 de Enero. It had been particularly gratifying to help the poorest of these families who were just starting out to build homes to replace the shacks they were living in.

Our time at La Matanza came to a close and we had to say farewell to 22 de Enero community. The families were truly grateful for the time we had spent with them and the work we had been able to do for them. Beba wrote a thank you note and Alejandro wrote that “if all the world helped like you, all the world would be better”. With tears in our eyes the bus took us out over the dirt track from 22 de Enero and back to Buenos Aires.

Then it was time to say farewell to Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina and have a “make your world a home” photograph taken.

Back in the UK I blogged that it was “over but not out”. Indeed with Tessa Shepperson making Habitat for Humanity her Charity of the month at Landlord-Law Blog and Armitage Associates becoming our Christmas Corporate Sponsor the fundraising continues. As 2009 comes to a close I will be considering how best we can retain links with our new friends in 22 de Enero and help them in 2010. In the meantime please help them this Christmas by giving at www.justgiving.com/argentina2009.

The Landlord-Law Blog from landlord and tenant solicitor, Tessa Shepperson, has very kindly made Habitat for Humanity their Charity of the Month (December 2009). In her blog post Tessa refers to our trip to Argentina and Inksters' support of the Charity.

Thank you Tessa for your support and for highlighting the work of Habitat for Humanity in this way.

Follow Tessa Shepperson on Twitter

Our Habitat for Humanity Global Village Challenge in Argentina is over in so far as our physical participation in the build project is concerned but it is far from completed. Having, experienced first hand the plight of the residents of 22 de Enero and their genuine warmth and gratitude we will be continuing to do what we can from afar to assist them. Our fundraising will continue at www.justgiving.com/argentina2009. If you have not already made a donation then please consider doing so. Every penny counts and with the exchange rate between the AR$ and the UK£ being about 6:1 even a modest donation will make a big difference to the lives of people in real need.

I will continue to blog about our experiences in Buenos Aires. Even although I have brought this blog up to date to the point of our farewell with the families and our farewell with the Habitat staff there are still topics and experiences that I have not had the chance to cover. I will do so over forthcoming weeks. Furthermore, I hope to receive updates from Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina on progress made on the projects we were working on. When I do I will update this blog accordingly.

I will also be reflecting on our experiences and considering other ways that we can maintain a link with Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina and in particular the residents of 22 de Nero. I will blog further on this in due course. So please keep visiting this blog and the Inksters Give Website for updates.

Thank you for your continuing support.

The Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina staff

The Habitat for Humanity Global Village Challenge Argentina 2009 team

Read: Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina farewell

Following our farewell lunch with the families of 22 de Enero we had, that evening, a farewell dinner with the staff of Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina at their National office.

Before we ate we met with the national and local directors to evaluate our time at 22 de Enero with a series of constructive comments for the benefit of all concerned. We were the first Global Village Challenge Team in Buenos Aires and both we and Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina had much to learn from one and other. Our work at 22 de Enero on incremental improvements rather than the construction of a whole house was also a departure from the norm and an experience that Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina were keen to get feedback on.

Then it was barbeque time on the roof terrace of the office and a chance for us to socialise with the Habitat staff including some important back of office staff we had not met on site at 22 de Enero.

We looked at things that other volunteers had done to continue their involvement with Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina following a build project. I had already been thinking about this whilst building and certainly intend having a continuing relationship with Habitat in Argentina and their work at 22 de Enero in particular. I will return to this on future blog posts or at www.inkstersgive.com.

The evening finished with Juan selling us Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina merchandise.

See also: Make your world a home