Decent Shelter Ignites Dreams
By Sergio Ramirez

I was the first of my family to hear of Habitat, when a friend of mine was benefited with a Habitat house. I helped him to place blocks and build his house. One day my mother asked me what I was doing every afternoon after I helped my father work in the corn and wheat fields. Then I told her about Habitat for Humanity.

We lived in a house made of rusty tin sheeting. My parents requested a Habitat house, and when we learned that we qualified, I was the most interested. I like anything that has to do with construction. We worked in a group of three families in mutual help. Our enthusiasm was so big that after our house was completed, we continued working with other families.

Before, I didn't go to school, because my parents didn't have economic possibilities to do that. Now, I have qualified to receive a construction course in bricklaying at a training center and I work construction half days and study the other half of the day.

Today, we have a beautiful and safe house that we pay for with lots of effort month after month. In the future, I want to be a Habitat bricklayer and help my siblings go to school.

Thanks to God and to Habitat, I could recover the hope of overcoming difficulties in life.


The oldest of five children, 13-year-old Sergio Ramirez lives in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala -- a poor community nestled amid a beautiful valley in Central America where the Afiliado Salama built nearly 500 Habitat for Humanity houses in 1999. His family became Habitat homeowners last October, when they moved into a solid, earthquake-resistant house built of concrete block with a corrugated zinc roof.



Reprinted from Habitat World Magazine, April/May 2000.
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©2000 Habitat for Humanity International