A small Sanford company that creates sustainable housing for military operations all over the world is about to help an organization in need much closer to home.

  • Sanford company makes sustainable housing for military operations
  • It will donate structure to Girl Scout camp in Oviedo
  • Part of the camp was burned in a brush fire

“Our approach in life is, 'How can we do something that makes the Earth a better place? How can we give back?' ” Ron Ben-Zeev said.

World Housing Solution is donating a structure to a Girl Scout camp Oviedo for one month. The unit will allow campers to still enjoy their summer experience, after much of Camp Mah-kah-wee was burned in a brush fire in April.

Ben-Zeev, the company's founder and president, said it was the 2010 disaster in Haiti that spurred him and others to help refugees.

“The plight of refugees, it’s really disheartening," he said. “How can we create a better tent, basically? How can we make their lives better?”

World Housing Solution came up with a small shelter that could be built quickly, then taken apart and reused. Nonprofits didn’t bite, but the U.S. military did: A U.S. Navy construction battalion out of Mississippi purchased a prototype for their Hearts and Minds program.  

That purchase led to future projects, such as a five-building compound in Djibouti, Africa for women walking miles in desert heat for water.

“They liked it so much, they actually came back to us and said, 'How about doing things for us?'" Ben-Zeev said.

Soon, World Housing, working with a team of seven at a 17,000-square-foot facility in Sanford, was producing the structures — lightweight and able to sustain hurricane winds — for military housing, office space and bathrooms. Those structures were shipped all over the world, from Africa and the South Pacific to Europe.

In recent months, the company secured a major contract.

“We sent out a water treatment facility and sewer treatment facility that went to Nepal for U.N. peacekeeping forces," Ben-Zeev said.

But, helping Central Florida Girl Scouts in their hour of need was on Ben-Zeev's heart.

“We are extremely lucky to use our knowledge and resources to help our neighbors during this time,” he said. "The decision for us to lend our unit to this organization was simple... I’m grateful we are able to give back to those in our own backyard that need the help.”


Girl Scouts of Citrus' Camp Mah-kah-wee was torched by a brush fire in April. (File)