“If they go on a bus, you know you can’t carry too much food on the bus,” said Rosie Chaffold, Allendale resident. “Many times after you’ve bought your 50 dollars worth of groceries you only have 10 extra dollars to pay somebody to take you and bring you back.”

Chaffold says there are corner stores in the community. However Chaffold says the food is not always fresh or affordable.

The Fuller Center for Housing hopes to open the grocery store by the end of the year.

Reported by: Amber Miller

“For a while I lived with my parents in their apartment, it was small and very crowded. I moved to a local apartment complex downtown, because it was the only place that I could afford, it was within walking distance to my job and alone the bus route for my son.”

We lived in a one-room efficiency and the living conditions there were very bad.

I know that receiving a Fuller Center home will show my son that there is hope and people willing to help you if you pray and have faith.

Help Delisa and the Fuller Center of NWLA by donating your time or giving a cash donation.

God sent her assistance in December 2009 in the form of the Fuller Center for Housing of Northwest Louisiana, The Shreveport Police Department and other community volunteers to help make the house livable. However, the house was in great need and is still in need of many repairs. The ceiling is deteriorating, the foundation is shifting, and the electrical wiring is outdated.

During the December blessing, Ms. Braziel was informed of the opportunities provided by the Fuller Center for Housing of NWLA and that to continue to put money in her home would be a waste of valuable resources, but if she was willing, the center would work with her to get her qualified for a new home. Blessed be to our Lord and Savior, Ms Braziel and her daughter, the oldest of the seven kids are employed and has qualified for a new Fuller Center home.

Ms Braziel said that being blessed in qualifying for Fuller Center home gives her new meaning to the word “independent”. “I never dreamed that I would own a used home, let alone a new home.” “This miracle that has been bestowed upon me and my family is emotionally overwhelming. When I think about the Providence House, shelters and other individuals living on the street.

I also think about the fact that God never saw fit to let none of these things be. For my Family. GRATEFUL IS WHAT I AM.

Help Yolanda and the Fuller Center of NWLA by donating your time or giving a cash donation.

In December NBC 6 News introduced you to Yolanda Braziel who is a single mother of seven. Her home was in ruins until several community members and businesses stepped up and made major repairs. Now Braziel’s getting something she never thought possible.

“I never thought I’d be able to own a used house and God has blessed me now that I will be a recipient of one of the new homes and it is overwhelming,” said Braziel. “I tell you I feel like I’m asleep. It feels like a dream.”

Braziel recently qualified for a Fuller Center for Housing house. The building process begins March 15th. She’s scheduled to move in eight weeks later.

The Fuller Center for Housing needs $80,000 to build Braziel’s house. If you would like to donate or volunteer log onto fullercenternwla.org.

# The Fuller Center for Housing will host 50 Cameroonians from West Africa the week of March 15-21 for its next housing build. The center needs 25 cultural ambassadors to ensure guests are comfortable and looked after during their stay in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. French speakers also are welcome, but the language is not a requirement for volunteers.

The center also needs male hygiene product donations and clean linen donations for an upcoming house build project.

# The Cloverdale Learning Center in Bossier City needs tutors to help school-age children with homework and preparation for the LEAP test. Hours and days are flexible.

# A group of volunteers is needed March 26 to assist with the Suicide Prevention Conference. Volunteers will assist with sign-in, direct participants and more.

# The Salvation Army is seeking volunteers, who must be at least 18 years old, to answer phones and assist visitors. Hours are regular business hours weekdays.

For more information about these volunteer opportunities, e-mail volunteers@unitedwaynwla.org.

Shreveport Times 2010

The Fuller Centre Nigeria displayed pictures of the deceased humanitarian covering his days as a child to when he became a missionary working across the continents of the world.

The late Fuller, who while on earth worked towards helping the poor get decent accommodation for themselves, died 3rd February 2009. He was aged 74.

Speaking at the two-day exhibition, chairman of the board of the Fuller Centre Nigeria, Archbishop Josiah Idowu Fearon, said the late Fuller rose from a humble beginning in Alaba, the US and through a ministry in housing, he built many modest houses and gave them out on no-profit basis, thereby making homes affordable to families with low incomes.

He said homeowner families were made to invest their labour into construction of their homes so money for building went into a revolving fund, enabling the building of even more homes.

The archbishop explained that the late Fuller came to Africa in 1973 to test his housing model.

Having succeeded in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Fearon said, “Fuller became convinced the model could be expanded and applied all over the world.”

According to him, the project has found its foot in Nigeria with the construction of 50 housing units in Masaka, Nasarawa State.

He said a unit is sold for N480,000. All one needs do to own Fuller’s house in Masaka is to pick a form, fill it and pay initial deposit of N80,000. The rest is spread over five years.

Sam Odia who is National Director of the Fuller Centre Nigeria stated that 50 houses have been completed and given out so far.

He however lamented that bottlenecks and high cost of land in the urban areas stand as barrier to the efforts to provide many affordable houses for the poor.

He pleaded with authorities to donate land to the centre like it is done in other countries so more homes could be built.

Millard Fuller, the founder and former president of Habitat for Humanity, was a personal friend to me and many Members of Congress. Many of us worked closely with Millard Fuller, particularly in the last 15 years of his extraordinary leadership.

I wish to take a minute today to pay tribute to Millard and his family–his wife Linda, his son Christopher, his daughters Kim, Faith and Georgia and his nine grandchildren. He has left behind these loved ones who will carry on his important work. Linda was a cofounder of Habitat for Humanity, and a driving force in the creation of this organization that has touched the lives of literally millions of people around the world.

When I think of where Millard Fuller died unexpectedly earlier this month, near the small town of Americus, GA, I cannot help but be reminded of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most inspiring documents ever written. This declaration reminds us that when we speak about human rights, we must remember that the recognition of these rights begins in small places close to home, places so small that they can’t necessarily be seen on maps.

It is in these small places that people long for dignity and respect.

Sometimes in the Senate, we get carried away with grand visions of universal rights and broad, sweeping policies to protect these rights. But when you get right down to it, our visions are carried out in our own neighborhoods, in our own courthouses and in very small places like Americus, GA.

By the age of 29, Millard Fuller had made his first million dollars. He was a man with a great mind and extraordinary leadership abilities, who could have made a great fortune for his wife, his children and himself. But instead, with his wife’s urging, Millard Fuller and Linda decided to take the multiple talents God had given them and refocus their lives on Christian service. They set their hearts on making a difference in the world, and the result was an organization that is one of the greatest nonprofits I have come to know.

In 1968, Millard Fuller and Linda began a Christian ministry on a farm in southwest Georgia where they built decent housing for low-income families using volunteer labor and donations. This concept was expanded into what is now Habitat for Humanity International and the Fuller Center for Housing. By 1981, Habitat had affiliates in 14 States, and was carrying out its mission to build homes with volunteer labor, ensuring that these homes were affordable to the poor and those of modest means.

Many Senators have commented privately and publicly about his extraordinary organization, and President Carter once remarked that Millard Fuller was one of the greatest talents he had ever known–serious words coming from a President. President Carter was a personal friend of Millard Fuller, and in 1984, he became a Habitat volunteer, giving his name and resources to Millard Fuller’s organization. President and Mrs. Carter became the faces of Habitat for Humanity, and would attract thousands of people to volunteer during the Jimmy Carter Work Project, an annual week-long effort to build Habitat homes all over the world. By 1992, Habitat had a presence in 92 nations.

I was very fortunate to have met Millard Fuller. He was an inspiration to me and, as I have said, to many Senators. Many of us come into our young adulthood and say we want to make a difference in the world, and we all try in our various ways. Many of us never quite accomplish that. But Millard Fuller did. He had an impact on the world, and the world will remember his life and his vision. The world will remember that in this great land of wealth and opportunity, Millard Fuller thought it was shameful that people were living without decency and respect.

He said it is not what Jesus would want. It is not what the Bible teaches. It is not what those of the Christian faith believe. He built Habitat on a simple principle that the poor are not lazy, but very industrious–that if the poor were given a chance, they could accomplish a great deal.

In order to occupy a Habitat house, the family who is going to live there gets to build the home with their neighbors, with the kind of old-fashioned, rock-ribbed community values of pitching in, building a home, and building upon that solid foundation.

Not only was it Millard Fuller’s vision to give families a decent place to live, he wanted to give them something to own. Owning a home paves the way for being able to finance against the equity in that home to build a business, to send children to college, and to establish a future.

I want people to know that paying tribute to Millard Fuller is about more than just building homes. Millard Fuller’s life was about building hope, building a future and literally changing the course of life–creating an upward trajectory for people around the world.

I don’t believe that Millard Fuller knew what an impact he had. I only hope we will remember him often. And when we do, as leaders in the Senate and the House, as Governors, and in the White House, we will recommit ourselves to realizing the simple principles that Millard Fuller lived every day.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the devastation that hit the gulf coast, Habitat was one of the first organizations on the ground. Millard and his wife Linda came to Louisiana and helped us to start building on higher ground. They built not just in the New Orleans area and along the gulf coast of Mississippi, but also in Shreveport, LA, where they joined with a group of local leaders to start new organizations that built homes for people in northwest Louisiana.

I would like to read one personal testimony from Cherie Ashley, who is the executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Northwest Louisiana. She and her family were beneficiaries of this work. Cherie was originally from New Orleans, but the flood waters of Katrina forced her out. She fled to Shreveport with her family. She said:

I was blessed with one of the first of the three homes that was built in Allendale, in Northwest Louisiana. Mr. Fuller was passionate about the work he did and he was passionate about eliminating poverty across this nation. The Fuller Center for Housing and Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Louisiana have provided me and my children the opportunity to regain stability and normalcy after such a life altering event–Hurricane Katrina. I am not just the Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Louisiana, most importantly, I am a proud Habitat homeowner, and that’s what God–through Millard Fuller–did for me.

He most certainly was a man who lived up to God’s calling. I believe we would do ourselves well to remember him often, to thank Linda and his family for the tremendous sacrifice they made, and to honor him by continuing his work.

I ask unanimous consent that his obituaries from the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution be printed in the Record.

Millard was one of a kind. It was though he was specifically designed to do the work he did — intelligence, an effervescent personality, amazing communications skills and faith all combined to produce one of the truly remarkable philanthropists of our time.

He and his wife Linda gave away their wealth at an early age, so Millard didn’t have money of his own; but he was a master at getting others to joyfully part with some of theirs to fund a righteous cause. Millard wasn’t a carpenter either, but he motivated thousands of skilled and unskilled workers to build hundreds of thousands of houses all around the world. He was a remarkable man, and those who knew him were inspired by the experience.

One measure of success is creating something that survives, and in this Millard did very well. Habitat for Humanity, the housing ministry Millard and his wife Linda founded 34 years ago, continues to build with families in need and The Fuller Center for Housing, a second housing ministry that Millard founded, is thriving even though he only had four years to put a foundation under it. I’ve had the daunting task of following Millard as the leader of this ministry and I’ve been amazed at how his inspired leadership has encouraged people to continue to support his work.

The Fuller Center was established to carry on Millard’s dream of eliminating poverty housing. As a young organization with 30 years of experience, The Fuller Center has the enviable ability to be agile and innovative while at the same time thoughtful and deliberate. This helps account for our remarkable growth — in fewer than five years we have covenant partner organizations in 60 U.S. cities and 17 other countries. We have broken ground in North Korea on a pioneering project that will bring Americans and Koreans together, building houses in that distant land. The sun never sets on The Fuller Center for Housing.

The tragic earthquake in Haiti has given us the new challenge of building disaster resistant houses with families in need, but in such a way that our efforts help rebuild a damaged society and a broken economy. No one has been left unaffected by the magnitude of suffering that has been visited on the Haitian people, so this effort is one of great significance. Rebuilding will take tremendous resources, and we have not been shy about asking individuals, churches, schools and civic organizations to remember the long term reconstruction needs we face in their giving plans.

Today, as we honor the first anniversary of Millard’s death, the Fuller Center staff will be working on a house here in Americus. We figure the best way to remember him is with a hammer in our hand. We invite all of those whose lives were touched by this remarkable man to join in this great ministry. Like any nonprofit we can always use more leaders, volunteers and money. We invite you to help fulfill Millard’s dream — work on a building site, sponsor a Haiti House, send in a check. This is a righteous undertaking, and by God’s amazing calculus, the gifts you give with be multiplied and returned to you.

So it’s been a year since Millard died. We have worked hard to keep the vision alive. I think he would be proud.

David Snell, president

The Fuller Center for Housing

The conference concluded with a tour of the Shreveport neighborhood Allendale. The site for Fuller Center for Housing’s first building initiative, “Building on Higher Ground.