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 The irony of Aniepa Togolokva’s life is that she works every day for a construction company plastering walls in other people’s houses. At night, she comes home to a room, 6 feet by 10 feet, amid a slum of shanties. There is no running water, no heat, and only sporadic electricity. Ice forms on the inside walls in winter. Togolokva shares a tiny outdoor kitchen, gas stove and water pump with her neighbors. A single pit latrine serves the entire community.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Togolokva’s husband went to Russia in search of a better life, and she was left alone to provide for her six children. The family was forced to separate: two children live with grandparents, two live hours away with other relatives, and two attend boarding school. “A house is only part of what Habitat is giving me,” says Togolokva. “They’re giving me my children back, too.”
—Habitat Kyrgyzstan plans to add the finishing touches (water hookups and glass in the windows) to Aniepa Togolokva’s house this fall.
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 Mohammed wanted to build a safer, healthier place for his family to live. With help from a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services, he had hope for a new house. But first, he had to tear down his precarious mud-brick house in order to build a sturdy brick and limestone house in its place. He needed a place to live in the meantime and couldn’t afford to rent another house. Girgis owned the building across from Mohammed’s land and knew of his neighbor’s need. In an act of partnership, he invited them to stay in his building, rent free.
— Since moving into their new Habitat house in 1999, Mohammed’s son got married, and Mohammed is working to add rooms to his house for the young couple. |
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 Nomvula Jeanette Ndlovu lives in a three-room shack in Orange Farm, South Africa, with her husband and three children. “My son is 17 years old, and he sleeps on the floor with the two kids because there is no other room,” she says. “When it rains, the water comes inside and they must wake up and fold the blankets because they can’t sleep on top of the water. I’m sick and tired to live like this.”Nomvula applied for a Habitat house with Habitat for Humanity Arekopanang. “I hope and trust that Habitat will help make my dreams come true,” she says.
—Nomvula Ndlovu’s dream came true in time for Christmas last year. |
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 Josaya Chikavira, a subsistence farmer, is one of more than 150 Habitat homeowners in his village. “As a farmer, it was difficult for me to raise an amount to build a good house,” he says. “My family was living in huts.” But with help from Habitat for Humanity, he and his wife and their three children were able to move into better shelter. He credits his four-room house with changing his life, and he has been able to buy good chairs, kitchen utensils and beds. “All members of the family now have their privacy,” he says. “We have a better standard of life compared to what we had in the huts.”
—A Habitat homeowner since 1997, Chikavira says he is happier and more confident now.
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 Namugenyi Piona, a nurse and single mother, lived with her two daughters in a two-room rental house in Wobulenzi, Uganda. The crowding and insecure location caused her to worry about the safety of her daughters, and she desired to live in a place with electricity and a sense of community. She found that place in a Habitat community of 45 houses. “A Habitat home enhances one’s ability to raise one’s children,” she says.
—Namugenyi Piona was able to move her family into a Habitat house last December. She feels that her daughters’ safety is much greater now.
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 More than 80 percent of the population in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, is homeless or lives in substandard housing. Mekonnen Gebre Egziabher and his wife, Wro Abeba W/Mariam, used to be among this group. The couple had considered themselves lucky to be able to rent a small, one-room mud house. They and their child were always cold, and when it rained, they were wet, too. Today, their three-room brick Habitat house has an iron roof to protect their growing family. “We have a separate place to cook and clean and a convenient toilet,” says Wro Abeba W/Mariam. “Habitat gives hope not only to us, but to many people.”
—Safe and warm in a Habitat house for two years, the family now has two children.
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 A.B. Chandralatha was born into a brutal cycle of poverty. “I was born poor,” she says, “and I had to marry in the same condition.” Married at age 15 to lessen the burden on her family, Chandralatha and her husband, Chandrasena, a laborer, currently live in a house with no foundation and crumbling walls. The family earns 1,000 Sri Lankan rupees (a little over $12US) a month. Despite their poverty, the family has hope as they work on their Habitat house. “We realize the value of a house as we get wet in the rain,” explains Chandralatha, who travels as far as seven miles to get water used to make cement blocks for their house. “[Before], owning a house was only a dream, but now it has become a reality.”
—Chandralatha and her family moved into their new Habitat house last December. |
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