Habitat for Humanity is creating a more welcoming environment for a few refugee families by building a new home in Cheektowaga.
Joseline and Clement Teganya will move into their first home soon which has been built from the ground up.
“It’s pretty much our American dream,” says Clement Teganya. “You might look at other people and say oh that’s their American dream is bigger but as far as for our standards as refugees is bigger than everybody’s.”
Both came to America from Rwanda in 2005.
They say they’ve always striven for a better life.
And Habitat for Humanity helped bring their dreams to life.
The organization has been building homes like Teganya's dream home since 1985.
They say they’ve had more and more new Americans go through the program over the past few years.
“Recently we’ve built our 350th home so we’ve worked with a lot of families over that time,” says Alex Lauer, Director of Development and Communications at Habitat for Humanity. “And really our goal is to help families establish general wealth and end generational poverty.”
As part of the program, the family needs to put in hundreds of volunteer hours to meet the requirement to get a new home.
“You’ll come to the site and they teach you,” says Clement Teganya. “They have the builders that actually teach you and show you how to paint. How to put drywall.”
This family of four is now expecting to welcome a fifth one just in time to settle into their new home.
And their four-year-old Micah is just itching to claim his territory along with his baby sister majesty.
“I’m going to be playing in the basement and be with my toys,” he says.
This family is ready to make memories and move into this two-story home sometime next month.
“We thank them for giving us this opportunity to be able to work with us and give us this beautiful home,” says Joseline Teganya.
