Shelter For Life International, Inc. (SFL) is a humanitarian organization with headquarters in Minnesota USA. SFL is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization in the State of Wisconsin, USA, and is registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a Private Voluntary Organization. With over twenty five years of experience, SFL specializes in providing sustainable housing solutions for internally displaced persons, refugees, ecological migrants, and disaster victims.
SFL also has an extensive history in reconstruction of physical infrastructure, agriculture development and food security, and application of microcredit. Cultural sensitivity, community participation, and appropriate technologies are an integral part of their programs. SFL is currently serving in Afghanistan, South Sudan, Liberia, Senegal, Tajikistan, and the United States. Previously, SFL has worked in Angola, Burundi, Honduras, India, Iran, Kosovo, Macedonia, Indonesia, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Western Sahara. They have a successful record of collaboration as an implementing partner with USAID, the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, humanitarian organizations, and national governments.
On the Ground Experience
SFL employs over one hundred people around the world. Over 95% of these staff members work in their field offices, with the majority hired from within the local community. Their staff members bring decades of experience in construction, engineering, architecture, community development, agriculture development and food security, education, training, disaster preparedness, economic development, community health, project management, finance, and cross-cultural relations.
Field Infrastructure
SFL maintains operational offices, experienced staff, and local partners within the countries and regions it serves. Offices and staff are fully equipped with vehicles, computers, communication services, and security equipment. In addition, SFL has built up acquisition, transportation, and distribution networks which give them the capacity to effectively mobilize local resources and respond to beneficiary needs.
Mission:
Demonstrating God’s love by enabling people affected by conflict and disaster to restore their lives and rebuild their communities.
Vision:
To be the leading international Christian humanitarian aid organization, providing disaster relief with long-term development and sustainability.
What They Do
Shelter For Life responds to conflict and disaster areas in many ways. As their name suggests, they help build temporary and permanent shelters. They also partner with local communities to provide for other needs as well; rebuilding infrastructure, livelihoods, and instilling hope.
Construction and Infrastructure
SFL has been addressing the need for shelter through the construction of both transitional and permanent homes in countries uprooted by conflict and disaster. SFL provides beneficiaries with the training, tools, and materials necessary to build their own homes. Beneficiary households have the primary responsibility for constructing their shelters and provide all unskilled labor and some materials. SFL supplies the majority of construction materials, which are purchased locally whenever available.
Education, Training and Capacity Building
In order to create sustainable communities, SFL incorporates capacity-building programs that promote diverse participation, local responsibility, and skill development. Building local capacity is accomplished by educating individual beneficiaries and through mentoring local organizations and institutions to increase their ability to effectively work within their villages. SFL's ultimate goal is that residents will become independent, self-sufficient, and equipped to solve their own family and community issues.
Economic Development
In order to rebuild communities and restore lives, families must have a chance to break the cycle of poverty and dependence on outside assistance. The goals of SFL's community development initiatives are sustainability, independence, and self-sufficiency, all of which are difficult to accomplish without financial stability. SFL offers creative economic development programs that give families a chance to receive training, earn income, and launch new small businesses.
Health, Hygiene, Water and Sanitation
Disaster and war inflict death, disease, and despair upon families and communities. As part of SFL's comprehensive and long-term approach to restoring lives, the health of people struggling to rebuild has become an important part of their programs. SFL offers a number of community health programs that focus on education, training, and prevention. These courses include topics such as hygiene and sanitation, HIV/AIDS education, drugs/narcotics awareness, disease prevention, and other health and well-being issues identified by community members.
But SFL understands that health encompasses more than the physical; it includes emotional, spiritual, and relational health as well.
Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition
Shelter For Life International has had long involvement in food security programs throughout Central Asia. Since 2000, SFL has provided emergency food relief and Food-For-Work opportunities for thousands of families in Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
