You have to see it to belive it?
24 July 2000, by Rita Cruz

This week�s story is a translation from an article that will be part of the Newsletter that the affiliate will start producing next month. Some adaptations were made, but the essential remains the same.

The construction of the twelve houses in Palmeira started at the end of May 2000, when the groundbreaking event took place, joining several important people from the region. From then up to now, construction has been continuous and advancing at an impressive speed. Fernando Martins has been supervising it from the very beginning, since the first shovel touched the ground, and as it turns out, he has grown to be probably the best advocate of Habitat for Humanity in Portugal.

I met with Fernando Martins this last Saturday for what was supposed to be a short interview, but he kept me for more than an hour (as I have already seen him do with other people), with all the stories he has to tell. And believe me, they are a lot, for someone who has been working for Habitat for four months or so. As I said, though, he knows this project from the very beginning. He has worked with every group of volunteers and he works with the families on Saturdays. However, unlike those of us who work in the office and who already knew about and believed in Habitat, Fernando Martins knew little and believed even less. He got involved because of simple technical curiosity. One friend approached him presenting Habitat as a different project, and if there is a word that inspires Fernando Martins, different is the word. He is moved in life by challenges and there is nothing he likes doing more than learning. As such, enthusiastic about the project a building a set of houses using materials in a totally new way so that houses could be less expensive, he became part of Portugal Build 2000. Then he learned that he was also working with volunteers, most of which had no experience in construction, and with ages varying from 16 to 60! Obviously, he never thought they would really come to Portugal, on holidays, paying their own expenses, TO BUILD! ...well, I am sure this is the same reaction that happens everywhere where Habitat principles are really not that well known.

His opinion now is very different. He simply says that he is not the same man he was three months ago. The first time he worked with the volunteers, he tried to save them from doing the hardest tasks. Guess what...they would be indignant! They really had come to work. Just to prove the point, later on as we ended our lunch on the construction site, underneath the little and comfortable shelter that a group of volunteers built in June, it would be the two groups of volunteers (lead by Fernanda Pereira and Anne Carol) who would first pick up a hammer, put on their hard-hats and their gloves and move into the construction area. �For me, these people have to be really big, they must have a very deep and admirable sense of mission�, says Fernando Martins over and over again.

Besides, he is enthusiastic towards finding ways of building those simple and decent houses again, but trying to get them even less expensive. �My wife says she has never seen me so tired and yet so happy. This is an amazing experience�, he says.

Habitat was born 24 years ago in the United States, and has a long tradition in that country that certainly does not exist in ours. That is partly why we have been welcoming American volunteers almost every week for the past couple of months. When this project is finished and when these families are able to enjoy a very different Christmas, more houses will be built next year for more people in need. By then, more volunteers will be needed. The Portuguese response has been somewhat shy. Some individual volunteers have joined: AXA Insurance workers worked for two days with us, the Baptist youth was also on the construction site for two days, and we are expecting the University of Minho Rugby team to come and join us for a couple of days. However, we need more! Fernando Martins� words certainly made sense when he said that �People�s mentalities do not change with the reading of a newspaper. I would really like to be able to rent a bus and bring people here, so that they can see. You only believe it when you see it.� If Fernando Martins is right, and I do believe he is, his words that I leave you don�t amount to much. But maybe if I invite you to come to Palmeira...come, at any day of the week between Monday and Saturday. Come on Saturdays and meet the families. Come talk with the volunteers. Come speak with us, either in Palmeira or in our office, located right in the center of Braga. Why not even take some part of the day, a couple of hours, and come work with us...maybe even spend a Saturday differently. Our doors are open for you and we want to let you know what we do and how we do it. Come see for yourselves and decide if it is or not worth believing.

Our office address is: Largo Santa Cruz No. 36, 4700-322 Braga, Portugal.

Our phone number is: (+351) 253 204 280.

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