Central Michigan Life

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: News

Students participate in a Habitat for Humanity program to build houses for people in Romania. Twelve CMU students traveled to the country to volunteer during spring break. [Click to enlarge]

Volunteers worked with the Romanian community to improve living conditions in the country. [Click to enlarge]

Twelve CMU students gave up their spring break to go to help give families in another country a new home.

The group traveled to Romania, where they worked with a construction team from Habitat for Humanity. Together, they built up a house at one site and laid a foundation for an apartment complex at another.

"The first two days we worked on our first build site and built up the house using cement and bricks," said Rochester junior Kelly Donoughe. "We were able to complete over 15 layers in two days, as well as various other projects, such as digging a hole to place a septic tank in."

Donoughe said the family living in the house never had a working bathroom.

Most of the rest of the time was spent at the second build site, laying the foundation for the apartment complex.

Donoughe said the job involved a lot of digging and construction of iron boxes that were placed inside the trenches they dug.

"We not only met, but also exceeded the expectations of the Habitat for Humanity construction team and propelled the home building project weeks, if not months ahead of schedule," said Southfield senior Michael Estime.

Her favorite part of the trip was working with the people in her group, and the Romanian community, with the goal to eliminate low-income housing in the area.

"It was great to meet people and learn about Romanian culture," Donoughe said. "And we got to learn a lot about their Communist years and how much their society has changed in the past decade because of the revolution over there."

White Lake graduate student Jessica O'Higgins went on the trip looking for a chance to volunteer.

"It's very important to do it if you can," she said.

The trip had a lasting impact on those who went, Donoughe said, and everyone in the group had a great attitude, and put forth a lot of work, and it proved to be immensely rewarding in the end.

"An experience like this helps to put one's priorities into perspective," Estime said. "Many of the Romanian people I met seemed to live simple, traditional lives, with the goal of being happy."

He said he took a lot away from this experience, but also left behind a beautiful home in which a family in poverty will prosper.


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