By Thomas Scaria.
Kannur, April 10, 2024: A unique community housing project has inaugurated its first house at a village in Kerala’s Kannur district.
The Project Shelter team handed over the house built with people’s participation to Adarsh on April 6, a disabled person with severe cerebral palsy, and his parents Ashok and Saudamini, residents of Panapuzha village.
“My son has a safe house now. I can peacefully die,” said Saudamini, receiving the house key in the presence of some 500 people from her village and community leaders.
Project Shelter was launched by the Claretians under the leadership of Father George Kannanthanam in October 2023 with a target of building a house every month.
The house at Panapuzha is built by the contribution of 1,000 rupees each from 1,000 people, a concept Project Shelter developed as a solution to the growing homelessness in the world, especially in India.
“This is a unique project where thousands of common people join hands with a small donation to gift a home for the homeless,” Father Kannanthanam told Matters India.
He said every sixth person globally has no secure place to live and therefore, the Project Shelter developed the concept of community participation in housing.
Project Shelter prioritizes building homes for the poor disabled persons in the first stage and a few houses are getting ready. “Our plan is to hand over one house a month to a deserving family,” the Claretian priest explained.
Adarsh’s 500-square-feet concrete house with two bed rooms was built in n 90 days at the cost of 1 million rupees.
Project Shelter’s efforts to make housing a movement of the people with the caption, “let’s home the homeless” has received appreciation and participation from people around the world, with more than 1,000 persons already becoming donors of the initiative.
Houses are now constructed in Karnataka and Kerala. Each month the foundation for a new house is laid and a new beneficiary announced, the priority given to families with people with disabilities, terminal illness, victims of disasters or widows.
Foundation stones for new houses were laid in various parts of Kerala with community participation.
“The Church is becoming a refuge for the homeless through initiatives like Project Shelter,” said Bishop Jose Pulickal of Kanjirapally, who laid the foundation stone for a house in Koratty near Erumeli. He shared the experience of how his diocese built about 50 houses after the 2018 floods.
Five houses are being built in Bengaluru, Karnataka state capital, expected to be complete by October 2, the first anniversary of Project Shelter.
Fr George Kannanthanam, who has already built 1,500 houses in his 32 years of priesthood, believes that the Project Shelter movement will bring hope to many homeless families.