Imagine seeing a facebook blast or getting a text that would ultimately lead you to a brand new house!
Well, that's just the experience that one young woman got when SMART and Hand in Hand Ministries partnered to make her and her two young children first time homeowners.
Our news team attended the handing over ceremony and spoke to the young mother who was accepting her keys. Here's what she had to say about all the ways this home has changed her family's life for the better.
Fransisca Hower, House Recipient
"I must say it's a huge help because where we were you know they needed their space, I needed mine so we decided to you know just go through the process and here we are."
"Via the media and Facebook I was scrolling and I saw the application from SMART, the advertisement was actually from SMART and we were already in a situation whereby Lisa did her damages and throughout the process, I decided to go through the application."
"After the assessment they came back to let us know that we were chosen to, well we got accepted into the program to receive the house."
Adelaide Sabido, Supervisor, SMART
"It's been in the works for some time. Coming out of the covid period I campaigned again for it and our team at SMART decided okay, yes it's time and so I contacted hand I hand and we have. A relationship with hand-in-hand ministries already, we have been a part of their HIV program and doing little projects with the preschool that they have and through our services of course so this is the first house that we are building with them it is a 16x20 foot. 20 feet home and then, I think the total cost of it is a little over 15,000 Belize dollars and so it took us a lot while to get that in the works but right after hurricane Lisa we said we can't halt on this project anymore and we told Ms Maggie to let's go full fledged in and we will hand over. The house is part of our anniversary celebration this year. On March 29th we are celebrating our 18th anniversary and so um, not only is it handing over a house."
Rashida Bethran, Director, Building For Change Program
"It all started with a dream of a person who wanted to partner with our program, that dream came to a reality where we had interacted and once I had met Ms. Addy, what we did is we had a conversation about how it will happen and how it will pan out, um, they wanted to do from the database, from the SMARt database and besides that because it was the same time with the hurricane, they also wanted to help a family that has been affected as well, um so what we did is they shared the information virtually to their lines, through SMART lines, text message, text blast and so forth and the client came to our program where we started the assessment. Once the client did an application with us we were on the team, it's team with SMART and with Hand in Hand, we went into the homes of these families did an assessment and then returned to delivery to make a final decision and luckily Ms Fransica Howard was one of greater need and fit the criteria of both hands in Hand and Smart that is how we made our selection and now she has a beautiful home."
Adelaide Sabido, Supervisor, SMART
"This program is so unique because it allows for the recipient to build their character and develop their life skills and so Ms Fransesca has participated in a building process for another hand-in-hand recipient and so as well as I think attended two out of 10 Saturdays sessions the first Saturday of every month where she attends sessions with hand in hand and these sessions are geared towards skills development, financial literacy, um, hygiene skills, cooking skills, whatever it may entail and in so doing the program you know is allocating for our citizens to help to be more responsive to others in their community as well as to their families, right so I think that is one reason why we have worked continuously with hand in hand and we will continue. To do so because their programs are designed to help advance the community and that is one of the objectives under our SMART belt as well in all the sponsorships and community initiatives that we do."
