Local women raising the roof at Habitat for Humanity site

Housewives, retirees and everyday working women have the confidence and skills needed to lay bricks, pound nails and raise walls, creating hope and eliminating poverty housing in the Bayou Area communities.

More than 50 women from the Tri-parish area and out-of-state will help build a home for Jenise Jackson and her 2-year-old daughter Ja’Cea, the week of May 2-9, through the Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build project.

“In today’s economic climate, the dream of homeownership for many proves to be a daunting task. That’s why the area Habitat for Humanity works to end the spread of poverty housing in the community,” said Women Build coordinator Aimee Bourgeois.

Jackson, 22, is a nursing student at Louisiana Technical College Young Memorial Campus and a single mother. She is eagerly anticipating both her graduation this May and the start of construction on her new home.

“My long-term goal is to finish my education and better provide for my daughter,” Jackson said. “This experience has changed our lives for the better as we’ll soon have a decent affordable place to call home.”

Jackson’s home will be constructed in the Angel’s Place Subdivision located on Bon Jovi Boulevard in Gray.

The nursing student will also be present helping to construct her home during the week as part of her sweat equity hours. In the months leading up to her home construction, Jackson helped other homeowners build their homes.

Women Build is a national event for Habitat for Humanity International. Since 1998, Habitat has built more than 1,400 homes through the project. The Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity, started in 1996, is one of over 1,600 Habitat affiliates in the U.S. Jackson’s home will be the affiliates’ second Women Build home in eight years.

The area Habitat has provided nearly 100 homes, otherwise, for families in the area, Bourgeois said.

Lowe’s sponsors the national event. Each May during the days leading up to Mother’s Day, women across the globe volunteer their time to build a home.

“It’s a good way for mothers and daughters to come out and help build a house in their community,” Bourgeois said. “By the end of the week, the women have shared life stories and made everlasting friendships.”

Bourgeois said the concept of Women Build is to empower women and give them a skill they would not otherwise gain unless they were on a construction site. Not to mention, the Women Build project helps Habitat boost its volunteer ranks.

“Many of the women who come to Women Build have never laid a foundation for a home or raised a wall to a home,” she said. “The most they have done is work in their gardens and did little ends and odd fixer-uppers around the house. Women Build opens them up to something new and exciting.”

To help women properly hold hammers, nail nails and other construction techniques Lowe’s does an in-store “How To” clinic for the women looking to participate in the build.

“All the skills the ladies are taught they can use in their own homes,” Bourgeois said. “At the end of the day, it’s about feeling accomplished and that’s what this Women Build project does. It gives women the feeling of accomplishment. They have helped out someone in need and learned something new about themselves … that they can do anything they put their minds too.”

Women Build volunteer Carol Davis, a retired teacher from the Terrebonne Parish School District and a cancer survivor, was present and accounted for at the Lowe’s training last Saturday.

“After all that I have been through I still have the energy to help build a home,” Davis said. “I told myself, what’s the point of survival if you’re not going to live.”

Davis, 61, said she is honored to be able to give back to the community by volunteering for Women Build. The former educator has survived a battle with breast cancer and most recently has been diagnosed with leukemia.

“I had the satisfaction of serving the community for 30 years,” she said. “And, when I was sick, I enjoyed that same satisfaction when the community reached out to me. I didn’t know that there were so many helping people in this community.”

Davis said there is more to life than just breathing, and more needs to be done. Women Build is just one step in the right direction.

The ultimate prize for the women is building a home, with little or no help from their male counterparts. People may think that construction work is just a man’s job, Bourgeois said, but women can also contribute.

“Women Build is not about excluding men, it is about including women and serving more families,” she said.

Aside from Lowe’s, other contributors to the local Women Build were Houma’s Books-a-Million, and this year’s Golden Hammer Sponsor Seeca Medical and Dr. A.J. De La Houssaye.

Each day, the Bayou Area affiliate will keep the public abreast of the progress on the home through a daily blog which can be read by logging on to www.bayouhabitat. org.

To learn more about Women Build or sponsoring a Habitat home, contact Bourgeois at (985) 447-6999, extension 224.

Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build project is set for this weekend. Women Build coordinator Aimee Bourgeois (left, seated) and volunteers Audrey Marcel and Crystal Woods look on as Lowe’s instructor Donna Daigle (standing) explains wood cutting techniques. * Photo by SOPHIA RUFFIN