Abdirisak Ahmed and Jamila Ali's Family Story

Abdirisak and Jamila live with their seven children (ages 12 to 18months) in an overcrowded, three bedroom apartment in St. Cloud. While Jamila stays at home with the children, Abdirisak tries to balance school and working at a local café so he can take care of his nine person family. It is hard to imagine how stressful life can be for them, but Abdirisak brings joy with him every time he steps onto our sites or into our office.

They were accepted into the program in 2007 and Jamila was so happy, she cried. However because of the size of their family, it was very difficult to find a home that could meet all their needs and they had to wait close to three years for Habitat to locate them a home. This year brought good news. Habitat acquired a property with two homes on it to fit their and another nine person partner family!

So as they wait for their home to come to completion, Abdirisak and Jamila have 400 hours of sweat equity to complete. They have been helping on build sites of other homes and doing community service to local agencies as translators and providing transportation to refugees. When they do finally get the set of keys and move in, they say they are grateful that they will have the space and privacy that they all need. We at Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity are more then happy to finally provide this family with a home. 

A few words from Abdirisak:

"I would like to say thank you to St. Cloud, because that's my home forever. My family and I have been embraced from my school, from Habitat, from teachers and doctors, my employers and I'm so thankful for being accepted into the community. St. Cloud and Central Minnesota is such a wonderful place. Thank you for allowing me and my family the opportunity to seek the good life."