Over a decade ago, when humanitarian design got little media coverage and was thought by many to be the poor relation of "real design" there emerged the fearless and groundbreaking non-profit, Architecture for Humanity. Co-founded by Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, who left rather more high profile jobs in New York City to run the then super tiny non-profit from an equally tiny studio apartment, AFH has grown considerably in its reach, influence, and number of projects. Today, big personalities and major design consultancies take on (or try to take on) the humanitarian projects that AFH has been involved in for years but no one does it quite like AFH. Who else can claim to have completed a project on every continent of the world for three years running?
In 2010 alone, over 81,000 people benefited directly from the work of AFH. As Sinclair explains, they weren't just inspired by it "but actually living, healing, learning or working in structures designed and constructed by our teams of building professionals." This year's 53 projects included community facility building in Chile and Kenya, post-disaster reconstruction in Haiti and Pakistan, low cost health clinics in India, and youth sports development work in Brazil, Mali, and Namibia. In previous years they've built soccer fields (like the Baguineda Football for Hope Centre shown above), skate parks, sustainable schools, mobile health clinics and model homes among other important projects.
Like every other group involved in such good, great work, AFH can only continue on with smart people and adequate funding, which is where you come in. Consider supporting their future efforts by donating one day of design. $25 will support a meeting with a client, $1500 can support an AFH designer for an entire month.
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