RECENTLY . . .
By Valarie Schwartz
Persecution, destruction, flight, fear, capture, escape, refugee – these words can be used to tell the story of some of our neighbors: the Karen people of Burma (now called Myanmar). It’s a cruel, malicious and little-known history of a growing segment of our population in Orange County.
But the bright side to their harsh past is that they are building a community here, aided greatly by the benevolence of those whose lives they touch – the churches they attend and the University of North Carolina, where many of them work as housekeepers on campus or at UNC Health Care. From these sources, the once impossible dream of a home of their own has come true through partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
On May 7, the five members of the Krit Heh Htoo and Say Ray Htoo family stood before their new home and thanked the many new friends who made this dream a reality in the Phoenix Place subdivision off Rogers Road in Chapel Hill. One does not come to live in a Habitat for Humanity home without making new friends.
“Bringing people and resources together to help families build and own quality affordable homes†is how Habitat for Humanity of Orange County has always operated, said executive director Susan Levy.
The Htoo family was sponsored by their church, First Baptist of Hillsborough, but three other Karen families moved into homes this year in the same neighborhood through sponsorship of the United Church of Chapel Hill. Flicka Bateman, a member of United Church and a Habitat board member, has become an ambassador for the Karen community, even learning the difficult language
“Eleven years ago, a Karen family of five moved in across the street,†Bateman said. “I took them under my wing, taught them how to drive, helped the children get scholarships.†She speaks of the successes of the now college-educated children as though they were her own. The more Karen people she meets, the greater her respect for them. “They are such a deserving group.â€
Their stories, however, are harrowing. Bateman has become particularly close to another young family, Star Thi and Pay Yeh, who were delivered to an apartment in Carrboro late one night in 2007. The couple had met in a refugee camp after each had seen their village destroyed and their parents taken into labor camps.
Pay Yeh’s life began as her parents were fleeing their village; her mother delivered her while running for her life. With childhoods spent hiding and starving in the jungle, before finding each other among the squalid conditions of a refugee camp in which 9,000 people lived together on 15 acres of land, imagine their confusion when left alone in an Estes Park apartment with such strange objects as a stove, refrigerator and toilet.
More Karen families will move into the neighborhood as the UNC Build-a-Block campaign of building 10 homes this year reaches its goals. This enormous effort will provide homes for 10 families of UNC employees and will be completed later this year.
Each home requires the support of the Orange County community because each house begins on land that Habitat has been able to acquire – and we all know the high value of land in Orange County. The historical source for land-buying assistance has been the Orange County Affordable Housing Bond Program, which is now depleted. Fortunately the Stewards Fund has provided a $75,000 challenge grant, whereby the gifts of any new donors (anyone who has not given within the past 12 months) will be matched if a minimum of $75,000 is raised by June 30.
As the 2010 census shows, our demographics are changing, with the Asian population growing at the fastest rate. Habitat for Humanity helps them find homes. Your donations further their efforts. See orangehabitat.org for more information.