Article: Chattanooga: Habitat home for refugees to earn energy certification
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
* The Habitat for Humanity homes are sold at no profit, financed with a 15- to 25-year zero percent interest mortgage.
* Clients must complete 300 “sweat equity” hours, which include 100 hours working on the construction site and the rest in educational classes and volunteering in other Habitat projects.
Source: Habitat’s Web site
Baja Dalla had a few simple words to express his feelings about his new home in the Jefferson Heights neighborhood.
“May God bless you and Chattanooga,” the 25-year-old refugees from Sudan told a group of people Wednesday. “Thank you for making us happy.”
Wearing a gray pinstripe suit and a tie, Mr. Dalla, his wife, Nyanchi, and three small children received the keys to their Jefferson Heights home, the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified home built by Habitat for Humanity.
Mr. Dalla, 25, thanked everyone for making one of his dreams possible and for welcoming his family to the United States and Chattanooga.
Last December, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga announced it would build the LEED home for the Dallas. Construction initially began on the corner of Market and Main Streets.
Four months later, the three-bedroom house is almost completed and the Dallas will be ready to move in about two weeks, said Mr. Dalla.
Connie O’Neal, director of family services for Habitat for Humanity, said she has met few people as hard working as Mr. Dalla.
“He was always here working, always wanting to know more, thinking he was supposed to work more, (and) always with a smile,” she said.
The Dallas are the fourth refugee family to move into a Habitat for Humanity home.
Mr. Dalla fled Sudan when he was 11 years old due to the civil unrest and violence of the country. During the two-month journey, his mother and seven siblings died, while his father made it with him to the refugee camp in Ethiopia, but passed away soon after.
The Dalla family arrived in Chattanooga two and a half years ago and resettled with the help of Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services and their co-sponsors Christian Fellowship Ministries.
“We are family now,” said Sharon Chedrick, co-sponsor and a family friend who signed them up for the housing program.
“I’m ecstatic to see the home completed and to know they are going to finally have their own home,” she said while she held 5-month-old Josephine, the youngest of the Dallas.
The family received a Bible and an embroidery piece that read “Welcome, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” made by the Chattanooga chapter of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America.
Perla Trevizo joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2007 and covers immigration/diversity issues and higher education. She holds a master’s degree in newswire journalism from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas. She was selected as an International Reporting Fellow by the International Center for Journalists and in 2009 received an honorable mention for her story “Families Broken Apart” from the Tennessee ...
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