Building homes, saving lives

An eye-opening trip to Africa inspired Chris Karram to give back on a global scale

A 2012 TRIP to South Africa changed Chris Karram’s life forever. The co-founder of SafeBridge Financial Group travelled to Durban, South Africa, with his wife, Arlene, to help build a home as part of a pilot project between Christian Blind Mission [CBM] and Habitat for Humanity Canada.

“After that amazing yet overwhelming experience, we committed to each other that we had to do more for those living in extreme poverty around the  orld,” Karram says. “Although we knew we couldn’t ‘fix the world,’ we believed then, as we do even more so now, that we can at least impact it.”

That commitment led Karram to found the Homes4Home Canada Foundation, which, over the course of two years, helped raise enough funds for the CBM and Habitat initiative to build 40 homes and two communal latrines in Fiche, Ethiopia. One build team has already travelled to Fiche to help construct one of the latrines; Karram and a second build team departed in March to continue the job.

“We believe a home is a basic necessity in life, yet so many people around the world live without one,” he says. “As a result, we can’t help but feel a responsibility to at least try and help wherever and however we can.”