The Future Home of Austino Lewis and Kama Quaye
4222 KIRBY
The second home rehabbed by Aveda Fredrics
Funding provided by Aveda Fredrics and the Ward Family Foundation
Austino & Kama will share this home with their 10-year old son Jeffrey. Kama and Jeffrey immigrated to the United States in May of 2005 with Austino joining them in September of 2006. They lived for over 15-years in a refugee camp in Ghana after escaping from Liberia during Liberia's civil war. At the camp, they lived in tents and eventually a makeshift building of bricks, never having running water or electricity, and the camp, as a whole, continually struggled to provide enough food and water.
"We feel we will be good partners with Habitat because we have proven we are very hard working and responsible. Since arriving in the United States, we have both worked very hard to provide a safe home for our son. Buying a home will provide our son a stable home and help us make sure he gets a good education. The rent and bills we pay do not allow us to save meaningfully. If this continues, it will be a cycle for the next generation, the cycle of acute poverty due to low-income." Austino works at CORE providing care for disabled adults. Austino was a journalist in Liberia and contributed to a weekly newspaper while in Ghana. Kama works at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. They were formally approved for a Habitat home on September 12th, 2007.
This rehab began in April 2008. You have to have vision, a lot of vision, to see what will be their final "home". When this home is completed, everything from HVAC, siding, roof, interior walls, electricity and plumbing, just to name a few will be completely replaced. This will help preserve an existing home in Cincinnati and provide this family an opportunity to buy an easily maintained and basically a 'new" home after all their hard work is completed.