By Nancy Huddleston, Editor

As the adults gathered in the living room at the newly-finished home on Hampshire Avenue, children’s laughter filtered in amongst the hum of the conversations.

The laughter came from Hosni, Hudefa and Abdirahim, the three youngest children of Mohamed Duale and his wife, Queen Hanshi. The couple was hosting a dedication ceremony for their new Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity home in the Boudin’s Acres neighborhood and were busy meeting and greeting folks as they came in the door while their children played on the floor at their feet.

As Abdirahim scooted across the new floor tossing his toy at the adults, his father described his family’s journey to America. Mohamed came from Ethiopia and Queen from Somalia. In addition to their three youngest sons, they have two more – Hamsa and Hassan.

Mohamed said as his family moved from apartment to apartment when they first came to the Twin Cities, one of his oldest son’s teachers gave him some advice as they prepared to move him to his third school in three years. “She said to make sure he got placed in the highest math class because of his potential,” he said, “And she warned me that because we’d moved so much, the school would want to place him in the lowest class.”

Soon, he found that to be true and ended up advocating to have his son tested. “He was put into the highest math class after that because he surpassed all the school and state standards,” his father reported with a smile.

It was through that experience that Mohamed and Queen decided they needed a home of their own and got on the list with Habitat. Their new home at 14805 Hampshire Ave. is a true partnership. The city of Savage donated the land and the largest donations came from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, AmeriCorps and ADC Foundation. Volunteers from a variety of local churches and businesses also made the house a home during the summer.

Habitat recipients must provide hundreds of hours of “sweat equity” in order to receive a home, in addition to fulfilling a variety of other requirements. And when they are handed the keys to the front door, they are given a zero percent mortgage that allows them to make affordable house payments.

Mohamed and Queen said their experience as Habitat for Humanity recipients has inspired them to make sure they volunteer in their community. “We have learned so much and one of those things is to volunteer in our community from now on,” Mohamed said.

“It is good to be here,” Queen added, “We needed a place for our family to live and we couldn’t have done it without you.”

Nancy Huddleston can be reached at editor@savagepacer.com.