A Wisconsin lawmaker will be building homes in Africa. Appleton Republican, Representative Steve Wieckert will be part of a group from the Brown County Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, leaving for the west African nation of Tanzania on Friday. Their goal is to build two houses in about three weeks.
Wieckert, who's been involved with Habitat in the Fox Valley says the simple, cinder block homes they will build will be a big improvement over the typical home in impoverished Tanzania, where the average annual salary is about $850 and the average life expectancy is about 45 years. Wieckert says malaria and typhoid fever are widespread, and AIDS has left many orphans and single parent households; one of the homes they'll build will be for a single mother and her children.
Wieckert is also collecting shoes to take with him — footwear in Tanzania, he's been told, is expensive and difficult to come by.