Rawlston Morian was 10 years old when he moved into his Habitat house in Southwark, England, three years ago, but he remembers clearly the old house he lived in with his parents and brother.

“It was very embarrassing,” he says. “Small and old—it was not nice to invite my friends to come and visit. The worst thing was the stairs. There were 60 steps, and I hated when we had to go shopping.”

He was doing his homework one evening when he found out the family would be building a Habitat house, and he says his first thought was, “I can make new friends.”

“My new house has changed my thinking,” he says. “I now think of my presentation in my school work, and I’ve gotten better at that. The house looks good, and there is space in my bedroom to play.

“My favorite room is the kitchen. In my old flat, only two people could be in the kitchen at one time, and then you still would be in the way. I can now help to cook the meals without being in the way. I love to cook.”

—with Cheryl Cartwright in England.