By the age of 30, Millard and Linda Fuller had already become millionaires. Business was booming and everything was going smoothly. But he blessing of their life came when they made a radical step in their life up until then: they sold all of their possessions, gave up their businesses and donated the entire sum for social causes.

	The Koinonia community
	Some followers of the Koinonia farm, a Christian community started in the 1940’s, based on equality and mutual help. Later on from Koinonia will come into being Habitat for Humanity.

They started a series of social projects near the region where they lived in Georgia, USA, but the most important initiative was the idea of launching a “partnership for houses” program, for building simple houses, in partnership with the neighbors that were to poor to get a conventional loan for a house of their own. The first house was built in 1969 and soon after others followed.

In 1973, the Fullers undertook the concept of the partnership for houses in Africa. Together with their 3 small children they went to Zair (nowadays The Democratic Republic of Congo) and built houses for, but mostly with, people struck by poverty. In just a few years the simple building from concrete blocks replaced the unhealthy houses, made from mud and straws.
Then Millard Fuller had an even more courageous idea: if the partnership for houses could improve the lives of the people in Georgia and Zair, why wouldn’t if help people worldwide?

So, in 1976, the Fullers went back to USA and founded Habitat for Humanity International. The 8 years that followed, proved that Millard Fuller’s vision about the ability of people to live and practice the true love of Christ through helping each other wasn’t an utopic idea, but an extremely fertile/rich one. Faith, hard work and an eloquent purpose have put Habitat for Humanity International on a ascending path.

In 1984, the American president Jimmy Carter joined the Habitat mission and launched an intense campaign in favor of the noble mission of HFHI. He created the „Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter Build” operation, an extraordinary display of volunteer force that annually change radically the problem of poverty living for a community on earth.

	Millard Fuller    (3.01.1935 - 3.02.2009)
	,,Every person, as the sun and the wear from the day sets in, should have a decent place to lay and rest''.

Millard Fuller has been awarded 50 honor medals, and in 1996 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil honor in the USA. On the occasion, United States President Bill Clinton said, "Millard Fuller has done as much to make the dream of homeownership a reality in our country and throughout the world as any living person."

Fuller was the president of Habitat since it was founded in 1976 until 2005. God called him among the angels on 3 February 2009, after a short period of suffering. He was 74 years old and he changed the world we all live in.

In the present Habitat for Humanity International is run by Jonathan Reckford, CEO of the organization, and the Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia is run by Don Haszczyn.

The Habitat programes at a national level are coordinated by the National Office.

Habitat for Humanity Romania is run by the Council Board (Adrian Ciorna – the president) and the Executive Director (Emil Olteanu).

In the mid 1990’s, in the small town of Beius, Bihor county, the idea and the concept of Habitat for Humanity started to be implicated in Romania. The founder and the main supporter in implementing the concept in our country is Adrian Ciorna. Through a sustained effort and a vision full of trust and hope, he founded the first Habitat association in Beius, association that has grown since then in a constant and blessed style.

After an intense training period in the USA, Adrian Ciorna returned to Romania and, together with a group of enthusiastic friends, started to build the first Habitat houses in 1997. A year later the first three houses ad the first three needy families could move in their own new homes. At the beginning of 1999 the next four houses were ready.

The work done followed the Habitat principles, using volunteer work, local materials and local design. Around these houses was going to develop the future Habitat neighborhood, at the present this consists of 40 houses and a playground for children.

Today, the street is officially named the “Habitat Street.”

In August 1999, Habitat for Humanity Beius was the host of the biggest Habitat event till that date – 10 houses were built in 9 days. The event coincided with the total eclipse of the sun in Romania. The Eclipse project proved the fact that Habitat for Humanity was a global movement because the hundreds of Romanian volunteers worked elbow to elbow with 180 international volunteers from 15 countries, among which the Ambassadors of United States of America and that of Poland.

The event also indicated the shift from houses built with bricks? (boltar) to houses built american style, on light wood structure.

In time, through the dynamic message and the continual action of the founder Adrian Ciorna, independent organizations formed around the country, these are affiliated to Habitat for Humanity that have taken over the programs and the responsibility of implementing them at a local level. Habitat quickly spread in: s-a raspândit rapid în:

• Cluj-Napoca (Cluj)
• Comăneşti (Bacău)
• Rădăuţi (Suceava)
• Pitesti (Arges)
• Craiova (Dolj)
• Cumpăna (Constanţa)

and so, Habitat has inevitably changed the lives of many more families in dire need of appropriate housing.

On June 21st 2003, in Cluj, we finished the 150.000th house at a global level of the Habitat for Humanity movement. The event was a special one through the presence of the founder Millard Fuller and it meant the profound consolidation of the concept and the Habitat results in communities in Romania in which this program exists.

Then, Habitat for Humanity became one of the few non-governmental organizations in Romania to undertook one of the most difficult tasks of helping the victims of the natural disasters in Romania: giving a home to those who no longer had one.

254 houses were rebuilt in 2005-2006 in the Bacau and Arges counties (Comanesti si Golesti) with the help of USAID, 195 houses in the Danube Waterside (Lunca Dunarii) in 2006-2007 (Bechet, Macesu de Jos, Cârna) with UNICEF founding and 110 houses were rehabilitated in Tecuci (2007-2008) with the financial support from companies and private donors. In 2009 Habitat for Humanity finished rebuilding other 110 houses, the reconstruction was funded by the Romanian Government and the Petrom Company, Habitat managing to gather the biggest corporatist contribution in the past years for an exclusively social purpose.

EuroHabitat Build the biggest volunteer event from Europe and Central Asia – took place in Radauti in September 2007. The event marked in an unprecedented way the acceptance of Romania in the European Union family. European volunteers worked along with 27 families to build the same number of houses, one for each country of the European Union, in just 5 days. During the EuroHabitat Build event, personalities of the social, political and mass-media life joined the volunteers in the effort to build the houses. Among these we mention His Excelence the Ambassador Donato Chiarini, the Chief of the Representation of the European Commission in Bucharest, the Minister for Development, Public works and Housing, Laszlo Borbely and the former of Romania, Emil Constantinescu.
EuroHabitat Build was awarded 4 prizes at the 2007 People for People Gala, that awards yearly the social implication of the companies and individuals.

A lot of major building events in “Blitz-Build” conditions followed, the events were very mediatized and not only helped solve the problem of housing for the partner families, but also helped to spreading the word and mobilizing the public related to the idea of the shameful lack of shelter. Habitat for Humanity is trying through these volunteer actions to show constantly that there is no need for a really big material effort, it’s enough for the community to have a strong will in order to solve the social problems it’s facing.

Habitat for Humanity Romania launched an active action in trying to solve the problem of extreme poverty and the lack of shelter in the roma communities. The partner families will work alongside volunteers on their own houses and those of neighbors. Since 2008 these actions have been honored with the presence of politicians, corporation directors, VIP’s, journalists and many more public people. Together with the Soros Foundation and the Timken Foundation, Habitat Romania is trying to find a proper solution for housing and to draw the attention of the public to the unimaginable housing situation of the discriminated roma groups.

Today the presence and the activity of Habitat for Humanity in Romania is ensured by over 80 employees and over 100 permanent volunteers that are dedicated to the mission of eradicating poverty housing in Romania.

By drawing attention and sensibilizarea the business environment, we have set the stone for a relationship that proved itself very rich (fructoasa) and blessed, but especially through the uninterrupted and altruistic help of our fellow men from Romania and from all over the world, Habitat for Humanity Romania has become in these 13 years one of the most important and one of the biggest non-governmental organizations in Romania. At the end of 2008 it was awarded the governmental recognition as an organization of public utility.