Build Change with Naomi: Inauguration Day Speech Video

Thanks to a buddy of mine, Sarah, I have a brief clip of the speech I gave last week at our inauguration, celebrating with the families on behalf of all you donors.

Click here to watch the video (you don't need any special software, it will play directly on your computer).

For those of you who speak Spanish, no laughing at my accent! For the rest of you, here's the basic translation:

Good morning to everyone, and welcome. Some of you I haven’t met yet, as I was traveling this week and have been away from the site. But we will have a chance to get to know each other well in the upcoming weeks as we will be working together here in the land.

I’m very happy to be able to be here representing a group of donors. When I was in the U.S. last week I had a chance to speak with many of the donors. They are very happy to know that we are progressing well here and celebrating the inauguration here today. And they want me to tell you how happy they are to have the chance to demonstrate their care and friendship to you, to your families.

Welcome to the Habitat family. We are a family in Habitat, and as you begin to make payments on your home, you in turn will help benefit other families here in Bolivia. This is a big part of the work we are doing here, to grow the Habitat program and help more families here.

I want to also thank the Habitat technical team. Many of you already know that this group of houses is outside all the plans and work Habitat already had projected for the year, this period. That is to say, there is a lot more work that the technical team is doing to make this project possible. I want to thank the technical team for everything they have done and are doing to benefit all of you.

To close, welcome again, and it is a joy to get to work with you.

Saludos from a sunburnt,

naomi