Habitat opens door to dream for Syrian family
Published Online Apr 28, 2007
By Julie Wurth
CHAMPAIGN –
Rim Hamwi will never forget the night the call came.
Her husband, who picked up the phone, suddenly started laughing and jumping around the house.
"What's happened? What's happened?" asked Hamwi, who was trying to put their two children to bed.
The family had just been accepted for a Habitat for Humanity home, fulfilling a dream they'd pursued since moving to the United States six years earlier. They all started dancing.
"It was unbelievable," Hamwi said, laughing at the memory.
That was a year ago. Today, at 10 a.m., the family will dedicate their new three-bedroom home at 925 N. Fourth St., C, built in partnership with the University of Illinois chapter of Habitat for Humanity. It will be the eighth house built by the student chapter since 1993.
Habitat houses are sold to homeowners at cost, with a no-interest, 20-year mortgage. As a partner family, Hamwi and her husband, Waddah Sweid, put in 500 hours of "sweat equity" by working on their house and at Habitat's home improvement ReStore. They've been working with student volunteers on the house since September.
"It's exciting to see the house all the way through from start to finish," said UI sophomore Kurt Erbach, who recently helped install the front porch.
The closing is set for May 11, and the family hopes to move in May 12 – the day before Mother's Day.
"It's a big present," said Hamwi, who visits the site almost every day.
The couple is originally from Syria but lived in Saudi Arabia before emigrating to the United States. Sweid had taken an accounting job there, as good-paying jobs are scarce in his home country.
But life in Saudi Arabia was hard – especially for Hamwi, who as a woman wasn't allowed to drive or work. The couple had already applied for U.S. green cards after Sweid's sister, Mada Sweid, who married an American and lives in Champaign, agreed to sponsor them. After a 10-year wait, they emigrated in 2000.
They lived with relatives until Sweid found work as a dishwasher at a pizza restaurant. After a series of temporary jobs he was hired to work on the loading dock at the new Savoy Wal-Mart. When an accounting position opened up, Sweid applied and was accepted.
Their dream was to buy a house, but they didn't earn enough to qualify for a bank loan. They heard about Habitat from a friend who read a newspaper story about the nonprofit organization. They applied in February 2006, and learned a month later they'd been accepted.
"The dream is come true," Sweid said Thursday, standing on his front porch.
Hamwi's mother, who still lives in Syria, came to visit a month ago to help the couple finish up work on the house and get ready to move. Hamwi can't wait. One of her first priorities is a vegetable garden. She's already planting seeds in little pots at their Winfield Village apartment.
Her 6-year-old daughter Lara is excited about the new purple playhouse out back, the big yard and having her very own room that she can paint any color she likes (purple). Lara now shares a room with her 3-year-old brother, Farris.
Hamwi finds it difficult to put her feelings about the new house into words.
"You know when you own your own house, you feel more safe, more secure. Not like when you're renting," she said. "Nobody's gonna tell you, 'Don't do this, don't do that.'"
Added Sweid, "We have more freedom."
Sweid spoke just a little English before coming to America, and Hamwi knew even less. Both have made great strides. Hamwi took English classes at Parkland College and plans to study accounting there, too.
In Syria, she said, it's impossible to go to college part time.
"Here you can improve yourself, you can change your life step by step," Hamwi said. "In other places, in my country, it's hard. But here, we call America, it's open."
