Habitat for Humanity New Zealand's latest building project will commence next Tuesday, September 22, when the housing charity starts construction on a four-bedroom home in Auckland's Viaduct during Air New Zealand Fashion Week.

Known as the "Nail It With Love" build, the house will be built by a 300-strong all-female volunteer workforce which includes leading NZ fashion designers Kate Sylvester, Liz Mitchell, Zambesi's Liz Findlay and Trelise Cooper, who initiated the ambitious project. Hammering alongside the designers will be celebrities including Dame Susan Devoy, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Adine Wilson and NZ's Next Top Model winner, Christobel Grierson-Ryrie.

Other participantswho will all receive a commemorative tee-shirt designed by Treliseinclude media and all-women corporate teams from Bunnings, James Hardie, AMP, Cerebos Gregg's and Dulux and many others. Fashion Week's celebrity guests, American actress Pamela Anderson and MTV Asia host Denise Keller have also been extended warm invitations to visit (or join in) the build.

Working against the clock, the house will be completed in five days, and on Saturday September 26, will be relocated by truck to a section in Mangere, where it will become home to Fredarh Salamo and her three young children. Fredarh and members of her extended family will also pitch in during the Fashion Week build as part of Habitat's requirement that partner families contribute "sweat equity" to their home.

Like all Habitat for Humanity building projects, qualified builders and tradespeople will oversee volunteers, who work in half-day shifts. Each working session begins with a safety briefing and the volunteers build under expert tutelage.

Habitat for Humanity New Zealand is the local arm of the international charity which aims to eliminate substandard housing by offering a "hand-up, not a hand-out" partnership by building or renovating houses that families purchase with affordable loan repayments.

A registered charity, Habitat for Humanity is financed by donations and the houses are always built with volunteer labour. Since its establishment in New Zealand in 1992, Habitat has helped more than 343 families into homes. It has a national support office in Auckland and 12 affiliate offices around the country.