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History
The idea for Habitat for Humanity was born at Koinonia Farm, a Christian farming community founded in 1942 in rural southwest Georgia to be a “demonstration plot for the kingdom of God.” Millard and Linda Fuller made their way to that demonstration plot in 1965.
By the time Millard Fuller turned 29, he had earned his first million dollars as an entrepreneur and attorney. But as his finances flourished, his health and marriage crumbled. To save their marriage, the Fullers decided to begin anew. They sold all that they owned, gave the money to the poor, and in their searching, landed at Koinonia, where they began soaking up the teachings of farmer, theologian, and community founder Clarence Jordan. His message resonated with them: “What the poor need,” said Jordan, “is not charity, but capital; not caseworkers, but coworkers.”
In time, Jordan and Fuller launched a program of “partnership housing,” building simple houses in partnership with rural neighbors who were too poor to qualify for conventional home loans. They sold the houses to the neighbors at no profit and no interest — what they called “the Bible finance plan.”
The first house was dedicated in 1969, and others soon followed. In 1973, the Fullers took the concept of partnership housing to Africa. Within a few years, simple concrete-block homes were replacing unhealthy mud-and-thatch homes . . . and Millard Fuller had a bold idea. If partnership housing could improve lives in Georgia and Zaire, why not the rest of the world?
In 1976, the Fullers returned to the United States and launched Habitat for Humanity International. By the organization’s 25th anniversary, tens of thousands of people were volunteering with Habitat, and more than 500,000 people were living in Habitat houses. |
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