Help Start Construction on Simple, Decent Housing

When your children want to be nurses, police officers or even doctors when they grow up, how do you get them the education they need while in a refugee camp in Thailand? With great effort and some good fortune you get to America. And then – with even more effort and good people who reach out and help – the incredible happens: you qualify for a house from Habitat for Humanity.

Such was the path that took Loo Htoo and his seven children from Myanmar, escaping their dangerous village, to a refugee camp in Thailand. For five years they lived in the camp, working to support the family and facing many challenges, including eldest son Grai contracting polio and becoming handicap in one arm because the lack of medical help in the camp.

Finally making the long journey to America, the Htoo family lived in crowded apartments where the conditions were poor and the costs high. Grai works to contribute to the family’s income and the younger children are learning English and studying hard. They have already changed schools once since moving here, and Sher, their mother longs for stability in their education.

While talking to a friend about their current, substandard apartment, they heard  about Habitat and decided to take his advice and apply for a home. It was good advice.

“I am excited to have a clean home and room for all of us and be able to stay in one place,” said Sher. “We can have relationships with the neighbors and be a permanent part of the community. Having a home to grow up in will end the children’s fears and anxiety about school and the home will eventually become their inheritance.”

With such a large family, many evenings are spent helping the children with homework and keeping up with the varied outside interests such as volleyball, swimming, and soccer. With five of the children interested in math and science, reaching their goals of becoming nurses and doctors will be a lot easier in a home that has room for all, and the stability the parents have always dreamed of providing.

Thanks to a generous partnership with local homebuilder Neil Kelly along with PARR Lumber, the Htoo’s home will be build as part of Habitat’s Home Builders Blitz 2014 from May 28, to June 13.
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Links:

• Read this story on Habitat's website.