Leading Entrepreneur & Social Enterprise Network To Support Re-building of Homes in Tabasco State

(Singapore: 13 March 2008): The XL Group, the world’s leading entrepreneur and social enterprise network, has announced that it will be supporting Habitat For Humanity with a commitment to provide funding for the rebuilding of homes in southern Mexico. 80% of the Mexican state of Tabasco is under water and 80,000 people are currently homeless.

XL Property, the most recent addition to the XL Group of companies, has selected Habitat for Humanity as its nominated cause (with 10% of its pre-tax profits going directly to Habitat for Humanity).

In what has been called one of the worst disasters in Mexico’s history, heavy rains since late October 2007 and subsequent flooding has affected over a million people in the states of Tabasco, Chiapas and Veracruz. Homes and crops have been destroyed, and it is estimated that over 80,000 people have been displaced and are living in temporary shelters. Significant rainfall and unusually large waves off the coast have inundated Tabasco, a low-lying and oil-rich state on Mexico's tropical Gulf coast, causing the largest natural disaster in recent Mexican history. It is estimated that the homes of 800,000 people are under water and 80% of the state is flooded.

Habitat For Humanity is a global organization that provides skills training for local populations to help re-build homes and communities. Its houses shelter families in rural, semi-urban and urban areas. The average house goes up in a period from 3 weeks to 2 months depending on the area and costs around US$8,000.

The support from XL will go toward assisting families in the affected areas with:

-Repairs of flood-affected houses.
-Rehabilitation of water supply and sanitation components in cooperation with local authorities and local agencies.
-technical and limited funding support to other organizations in rehabilitation of community centres used as emergency shelters and dissemination of disaster preparedness informational packages.

Roger Hamilton, XL Group Chairman commented: “Our aim was to align our XL Property business with a global organization that provides building trade and skills training to local populations to support them in being able to continue to develop and sustain their communities. After visiting the Jimmy Carter project in Los Angeles, and meeting with Habitat For Humanity in Mexico City, it became clear to our team that this was a perfect fit”.

Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to alleviate poverty in Mexico date back to 1988, when it started working in two housing projects. One of them in Chihuahua and the other in Hidalgo where Habitat for Humanity Mexico prepared in Valle del Mezquital two communities named Dexthi Alberto and San Pedro Capula. Two years later, when it was legally constituted as a civil organization, it developed a more extensive national programme that today covers 15 states, making it one of the largest Habitat For Humanity programmes in all of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Globally, Habitat for Humanity has built more than 220,000 houses, sheltering more than one million people in thousands of communities in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and throughout the Asia Pacific region.

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For further details about Habitat For Humanity: www.habitat.org

For further information about XL please contact Ian Grundy, XL Group.
ian.grundy@resultsfoundation.com
www.resultsfoundation.com

Ian Grundy
CEO & Head of XL Group Marketing and Communications
ian.grundy@resultsfoundation.com

XL RESULTS FOUNDATION PTE LTD
30 Robinson Road, #02-01
Robinson Towers, Singapore 048546
Tel: +65 6508 6788 | Fax: +65 63231131

About XL
The XL Results Foundation is a leading entrepreneur and social enterprise network. XL stands for Extraordinary Lives and its mission is to accelerate the power of individuals to create and contribute. This it does by providing effective training, networking and resources worldwide. Hosting over 2000 events in 50 cities in 2008, XL provides coaching accreditation, online networks and the XL Results Foundation - a global membership programme. The company provides tools for entrepreneurs which include the Wealth Dynamics Experience, Entrepreneur Business School, XL Magazine and the XL Social Enterprise Accreditation Programme.

This release was published on openPR.