In a way, Gwen Reis has been building things her entire adult life. At age 20, she began building cars on an assembly line for a major automotive manufacturer in New York. She later moved to Atlanta with the company.
When Flora Mohammed’s husband left her, she didn’t know where to turn for help. Mohammed, who fled her native war-torn country of Sudan in 2011 to come to North Carolina, had five children, no job and limited English skills.
For a while, Mohammed and her children, ages 7 to 15, stayed with a friend in Cary. But they needed permanent housing, and Mohammed, 40, needed a source of income.
The Kpa-Ksor family, who partnered with the Catholic Coalition and an anonymous donor to build and buy their home, were recently profiled in the Garner-Cleveland Record. Thanks to the News & Observer's Jonathan Alexander for sharing the remarkable story of the Kpa-Ksor family!
Joann Blumenfeld is an energetic, resourceful teacher at a Wake County middle school who says that lessons she learned through Habitat for Humanity set the course for her and her family. The crux of what Joanne teaches her children is simple: Work hard. Focus on school. Give back.
Last Tuesday, Habitat Wake dedicated the Holloway family home on Parnell Street. Deonna Holloway chose to build in the Long Acres neighborhood of Raleigh. This effort is part of a Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) that is committed to bettering the communities in which our homeowners live.
In May, Marva Robinson stood with Jim Wells from the Lion’s Club and held a flame to her mortgage, dropping it on the pavement behind the Habitat Wake ReStore as staff and Board members applauded. “It feels good,” she says about paying off her mortgage. “I’ve achieved another goal. It was hard sometimes, but when I say I’m going do something, I’m going to do it!”
For more than four decades, Debbie rented a house in the Long Acres neighborhood located off Poole Road in Raleigh. The home was substandard in many areas, including electricity and plumbing. Debbie was more than ready to purchase a home of her own. In fact, about 10 years ago, one of Debbie’s friends encouraged her to apply for a home with Habitat. But it wasn’t until Habitat planned to build in the same neighborhood where she has lived nearly her whole life that Debbie finally applied.
