Meet Cordelia Mkhabela
by Samantha Schroeder

Mrs. Mkhabela and her husband are full of thanks these days. "We all do the work of God, so we don’t have a basic salary. But God is blessing us. Though our rent is high, and we must pay for my son’s school fees, we find a way to sleep with some food in our bellies every night." We visited the couple at their present residence, where they live with her two children—a 12-year old and an infant son. They currently dwell in a garage, a dilapidated structure of battered bricks, which stands precariously on the property.

Seeing how these poor conditions affected her baby’s health is the hardest aspect of living in a garage, Mrs. Mkhabela says. "He is five months old," she said. "Every time that it rains the garage leaks. My baby is always getting sick because of the moisture. There are also many cracks in the walls, which let the wind inside our home. Sometimes the leaves blow around our room. It is like we are outside when we are in our own house. Because of these things I am always taking my baby to the doctor." The Mkhabelas have paid substantially to live under these conditions for the past four years, but they have had no other choice.

The family’s foundation has always been a spiritual one. Faith has provided them with the ability to turn their difficult circumstances into blessings and to look with hope into the future. Mrs. Mkhabela and her husband—a minister at their local church—feel a deep commitment to helping others in similar need. Their pastor describes them as "deeply loved and valued members of their church and their community."

Mrs. Mkhabela smiles as she envisions a Habitat house of her own. "I would thank God, because we are always getting sick from the cold and the wind. It would be very good because we would no longer be paying the rent for a bad place. We would be paying now for a real home."

—Samantha Schroeder is JCWP 2002 communications project coordinator