What happens when you can’t afford housing in Macon? It turns out that there are organizations trying to solve that problem. I spoke with Jasmine Tapper, a senior global health studies major on the pre-health track. Tapper is the president of the campus organization Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat for Humanity is a Christian-based organization with its belief rooted in Christianity. Our mission statement is essentially to provide safe, decent and affordable housing to low-income families and people who can’t afford a regular mortgage. With Habitat, we have different volunteer opportunities. Saturdays we call our builds, and those are when we actually go out in the community and build the actual homes. So each Saturday we’re doing something different. Tomorrow we are installing siding, which is like the side panels that you see on the outside of the house, and then we’re painting those panels, too.

Tapper says that students should get involved with Habitat for Humanity because they consistently provide students with volunteer hours.

Not only that, but Macon is in need of so much, and I feel that Habitat for Humanity is a really good way to get students involved with their Macon community and to help make a tangible difference in the community.

To get involved, you can email them at [email protected]. The journey to reversing conditions created by low income starts with being aware.

As you drive throughout Macon, you can definitely see that there are certain parts of Macon that are a lot more impoverished than other parts. South, East and West Macon: those are all extremely impoverished. While you have North Macon that’s very built up, so I think the first step is being aware of your surroundings and knowing where the need is at most. I think the second thing is just getting involved with local organizations, community-based organizations that have their missions rooted into their community. Mercer does Service Saturdays and Be a Good NeighBear, and those are also really good ways to get involved, because they partner with different organizations throughout Macon to help go out and rebuild Macon and help with the poverty rates and break the cycle of poverty overall.

March 31- April 6 was Habitat for Humanity’s Act, Speak, Build Week. Over the course of two days, they raised over $200 to go towards their mission of building safe, decent and affordable housing.

For the Bear’s Beat, I’m Anisah Muhammad.