 |
 |
 Even as their marriage began 15 years ago, Juana and Miguel Cubilla were already dreaming of a better life. They tried to step up from a flimsy shack with a thatch roof, to a better wood shack with a thin metal roof. But it quickly became an uncomfortable place to live when holes in the wood invited rats, roaches, mosquitoes and spiders to live alongside the Cubillas and their three daughters. “We had to go outside to use the bathroom,” says Miguel. “It didn’t have a roof. When it rained, we had to take an umbrella with us.” The couple can laugh about it now, but the problems were very real then. After six years of these living conditions, they were accepted to be Habitat homeowners.
—With help from HFH Paraguay, the Cubillas completed their brick house last December.
|
 |
 Ademar de Souza and his wife, Valderene, were paying almost half their income for low-quality housing two years ago when the rent went up. The increase was more than they could handle, so they built a shack, 12 feet by 9 feet, made of scrap wood, cardboard and plastic to live in with their 7-year-old daughter, Samara. A nearby latrine enclosed with black plastic wrapped around saplings served as the family’s “private” bathroom. Late last year, each family member held a dream about moving into their Habitat house. Ademar, who works nights, will enjoy a house cool enough to sleep in during the day. Valderene dreamed of an indoor bathroom, a kitchen with a sink and space to care for her children. Samara envisioned a bedroom decorated with flowers.
—The de Souza family’s dreams became reality in January, just weeks after the birth of their new baby. |
|
 Before she moved into her Habitat house, Monaselle Allen lived in a one-bedroom flat with her eight children and eight grandchildren. They had no electricity or toilet, and water had to be fetched from the yard. When it rained or when the neighbors upstairs took a bath, water streamed down the walls to the bed and floor where the children slept. She says although there were times she wasn’t sure she could finish building her Habitat house, the struggle was worth it. “If somebody could encourage me, and at the end of the encouragement I have achieved a home, then why can’t I do it to somebody else?” she says. “This is what life is all about. This is what Christianity is all about. We all have to help somebody.”
—A year after finishing her house, Monaselle Allen continues to volunteer with Habitat. |
|
 When it rains in Braga, it pours— literally. For months each year, a relentless rainy season dumps up to 80 inches of rain in northwest Portugal. For soon-to-be Habitat homeowner Maria Alves, last fall’s heavy rains threatened to cave in an already precarious roof. Her house, though seriously decrepit, is tucked amid lush grapevines and flowers that belie the poverty beyond its stone walls. Alves, 64 years old and single, pumps water from a nearby well to a tank on the roof to create “running” water inside the house via a gravity feed. Her toilet is a basic latrine. To make ends meet, she receives a government pension and sells bread.
—Maria Alves’s house is among 12 multi-family units due for completion in September by HFH Braga in Portugal. Four of those units were specially designed to accommodate single people and small families on very low incomes.
|
|
 A nursery officer in a preschool center, Tina Fellows spends her workdays assessing children’s needs and providing positive experiences to help them develop. But at home in an inner-city apartment in a London suburb, her own children—Micaiah, 8, and Jared, 3—were suffering. “I felt a failure,” she says. “I could not provide them with a basic good environment.” But south of the Thames River in London, there was hope. Southwark Habitat for Humanity began its newest three-house build in April 2000. “Our new house is a real home,” Tina says. “I now know that Micaiah and Jared will have physical space, and the freedom to play safely, as well as the ability to be part of a community and to be proud of where they live. This project allowed me to gain back faith within. …I’ve become happy again.”
—Tina Fellows and her children moved into their house early this year. |
|
 In addition to high unemployment and inflation in Poland, many communities face the added challenge of costly rental housing. “We could hardly afford staying here [in Gliwice], but I couldn’t find a better job [elsewhere],” says Tomasz Nikiel, a 28-year-old computer engineer. Their housing priority was to provide a warm and dry home for their two foster children, Kasia, 13, and Artur, 10, and their son, Michal, 3. Doing so caused them to move several times in two years. “Investing in our own decent and affordable house through Habitat for Humanity was very helpful,” says Nikiel. “This way, we hope to change our unstable situation.”
—HFH Gliwice planned to complete the Nikiels’ house, which is one of six units in the affiliate’s fourth row-house building, this year.
|
|
 With the unreserved innocence of a child, 6-year-old Adam Herczeg tells it as he sees it. In his room in his family’s new Habitat house, he says he can jump up and down and no landlady screams at him to keep quiet. He can even play in the yard and have a dog. His family came to Dunavarsany (near Budapest) four years ago in search of jobs and a better life. Adam’s parents, Laszlo and Margit, did find work, but finding a decent home for their four children proved to be more difficult. The family of six had no choice but to share a tiny 350-square-foot apartment with relatives.
 Today, they are thankful. After working nearly 2,000 hours of sweat equity to build their own house, they say they would do it all again without complaint.
—The Herczeg family moved into their new house last November, and Adam hopes to get a puppy.
|
|
|
|
