ROANOKE, Va. – An exciting week as we get ready to hand over the keys to this year’s “Home for Good.”
Our Home for Good project is in partnership with Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley and generous community sponsors, as well as volunteers.
Seven other families have experienced the joy of homeownership through the “Home for Good” initiative, including the 2019 “Home for Good” recipient, the Ayamba family of Roanoke.
That day in 2019 was a day that the Ayambas will never forget.
“It felt so good, I’m telling you, like, that was our first time owning a house. It felt so good. We felt like the whole world was ours,” Ebengo Ayamba said.
Ebengo is one of twelve children in the Ayamba family and said stepping through the door into a seven-bedroom home that was their “Home for Good” was life-changing.
“We had a four-bedroom house and it was a big family, so it was very, very hard to live in that house. And the house did not have good conditions to raise kids in it,” Ebengo said.
Now, Ebengo said he’s grateful to live in a home that’s comfortable and safe for his parents and his siblings.
Not only that, but the project hasn’t just given the family a roof over their heads – Ebengo said he’s learned a lot of helpful information and skills from the project.
“We learned about saving money, that was the first thing we learned,” Ebengo said. “We learned about building houses so if something break in my house, I can only fix it by myself I don’t have to get a mechanic or somebody else to do it. The whole process taught me that.”
For Ebengo, the Habitat process has come full circle. He works at Habitat’s Restore on Melrose Avenue in Roanoke.
Ebengo encouraged anyone who thinks homeownership is out of reach to consider reaching out to Habitat for Humanity.
“Anybody out there who wants to do it, trust me I challenge you to try, just try, it’s worth it,” Ebengo said.
You can learn more about Habitat for Humanity’s homeownership qualifications here.