Every Woman Has the Power to Build a Better World
“All of the love that has gone into building this home will stay here until the end of the world.” – Habitat Capital Region Homebuyer, Suliman to a group of Women Build participants
LANSING, MI – A local family is moving closer to their dream of homeownership due in part to the efforts of 116 local women who donated their time and energy rehabilitating a Lansing house during Habitat for Humanity Capital Region’s Women Build, May 20-24, 2019. A total of 791.5 volunteer hours committed to the project transformed every aspect of the home and property.
“Being a part of Women Build is an incredibly rewarding experience, but it is also a tough job. This year the volunteers really rose to the challenge, overcoming rain, mud and taking on a lot of heavy lifting,” said Habitat Capital Region CEO, Vicki Hamilton-Allen.
Volunteers cleared several dumpster loads of debris from the property throughout the week making way for fresh landscaping and an accessible back yard where children will play and a vegetable garden will be planted each year. Inside, the house was stripped down, scrubbed out, and reassembled to create a like new home and a clean start. Upon completion of rehabilitation work, Habitat Capital Region will sell this home to Najat and Suliman, approved applicants to the Homeownership Program.
Najat and her husband Suliman came to Lansing with their seven children in 2016 as Congolese refugees. Najat was born to a Congolese family in a refugee camp in Sudan; life as a refugee is all that she has ever known. Becoming a homeowner in this country, once something so unimaginable, has transformed her future and the future of her family.
Najat and Suliman visited the construction site to speak with the volunteers throughout Women Build to thank them for their hard work and support. Najat expressed her immense gratitude to the participants. “I never imagined women working on my home. In my country women do not do this type of work. You are an inspiration to my daughters to show them that they can do anything they want.” The enormousness impact and connection each participant has had with this family was perhaps best described by Najat when she told the women, “You are all my sisters now.”
The services that Habitat Capital Region provides are only made possible due to overwhelming community support in the form of financial contributions and volunteered labor. Thank you to this year’s Women Build sponsors and participants: WLNS TV 6, AF Group, Junior League of Lansing, Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, Ameriprise Financial, LAFCU, Consumers Energy, Morgan Stanley, the office of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, North Winds Heating and Cooling Inc., Bell Title Company, Coomes Landscape Services, The Kitchen Shop, Front Room Underfashions, and Thee Electric Company.
About Habitat for Humanity Capital Region
Habitat for Humanity Capital Region repairs and builds homes to sell to people in need of decent and affordable housing in Ingham and Eaton counties. Habitat for Humanity Capital Region is part of a global nonprofit housing organization that seeks to put God’s love into action by building strength, stability, self-reliance, and shelter. Habitat was founded on the conviction that everyone deserves a simple, durable place to live in dignity and safety, and that decent shelter in decent communities should be a matter of conscience and action for all. Habitat for Humanity Capital Region has served more than 2,000 households in the Capital Region. For more information, visit habitatcr.org.
CONTACT: Elyse Kopietz, COO, Habitat for Humanity Capital Region (517) 374-1313 elyse@habitatlansing.org
