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Solomon Ghebru, his wife Mehret Awate, and their daughters Peniel, 8, and Lydia, 4, are hoping to move from a two-bedroom apartment into homeownership. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
After he found work in Malta, he tried to have his family join him, but government policies prevented them from reuniting. The couple married in Uganda in 2016, and their first daughter, Peniel, was born there the following year.<\/p>\n
Awate arrived in Canada in 2021 with Peniel to reunite with her sisters in Winnipeg. Ghebru was able to join them in 2023 after receiving sponsorship support from family members.<\/p>\n
When he finally reunited with his family, Ghebru said it was difficult to put into words.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t describe it \u2014 it was amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One week after arriving in Winnipeg, he began working and now works full time in yard maintenance, serves on his workplace\u2019s safety committee and trains new staff.<\/p>\n
Their daughters, Peniel, 8, and Lydia, 4, are growing up in Winnipeg. Ghebru said Peniel enjoys school and sports and hopes to become an architect or engineer.<\/p>\n
The family lives in a two-bedroom apartment, which Ghebru said can feel very small for the family. They have also faced safety concerns after a rock shattered a neighbour\u2019s window, leaving their oldest daughter afraid to sleep alone.<\/p>\n
Despite those challenges, the couple is focused on the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dream is just in front of us to achieve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Habitat Manitoba\u2019s affordable homeownership program helps lower-income families move from rental or subsidized housing into homeownership through a zero-interest, 15-year renewable mortgage model. Families do not need a down payment, but contribute 500 volunteer hours and complete financial education workshops as part of the program.<\/p>\n
Ghebru has completed about 180 volunteer hours so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m working for my house,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever is required there, I act.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are together right now, very happy raising our kids and looking forward to being the owner of our home.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Cycle of Hope riders have played an important role in helping make that goal possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey bring people in unity,\u201d he said. \u201cThey make a big difference and a big opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight riders will travel more than 100 kilometres a day through communities including Steinbach, Morris, Winkler, Morden, Glenboro, Brandon, Killarney and La Salle. Along the route, they will pass Habitat Manitoba chapter builds and see how fundraising supports local families.<\/p>\n
Leanne Taylor, the 2026 Cycle of Hope ambassador and Canadian Paralympic bronze medallist in paratriathlon, said Habitat\u2019s work stood out to her because of its focus on helping families move forward after difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt felt to me like a lot like my injury recovery,\u201d said Taylor, who was paralyzed from the waist down after a bike accident in 2018. \u201cThrough a lot of different agency support, I felt like I was kind of picked back up and then set on a really positive trajectory. And I just saw that same kind of idea in what Habitat was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis just gives them that head start that they need to be able to get a little bit ahead and start from a more positive place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cycle of Hope has been running for more than 30 years and has helped raise $4 million, supporting the construction of 25 homes for Habitat families.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we got this opportunity, it was impossible for us,\u201d Ghebru said. \u201cBut now we feel we are stable. We have a dream. This dream is happening because of Cycle of Hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Solomon Ghebru and his family have been building a life together in Winnipeg for the past three years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-840007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}