Jireh Foundation helping Sudanese families buy houses
THE Beith family couldn’t be more excited about moving into their new Clyde North home, which they bought with help from a charity giving Sudanese families a shot at home ownership.
South East
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A NEW charity has given a Sudanese family the chance to buy their own home in Clyde North.
The unique program gives refugee and newly arrived migrants the deposit for a house, which does not have to be repaid, and the families can pay off the rest of the loan instead of paying rent.
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The Bieth family is the first to get a home under the scheme run by the Jireh Foundation, which aims to help four Victorian families a year in areas with high refugee populations such as Casey and Dandenong.
Parents Simon Bieth Kat and Elizabeth Ayen Bol last week moved into with the house with children Achok, 20, Nyankach, 16, Michael, 13 and Pabut, 11.
“My family and I feel overwhelmed by this, we never thought something like this could be possible but the Lord has made this possible,” Achok said.
She said owning a house was important and “it allows us to feel like Australians”.
“It makes us feel like we are carrying our own weight and doing something for ourselves, so that we can stand in pride and sing Advance Australia Fair,” she said.
The head of the foundation Reverend Glenn Buijs said the scheme made sense because high rents often equalled mortgage payments, but refugees didn’t have the required deposit.
He said the Community of the Holy Name donated $500,000 to the foundation, which would now be used to provide families with deposits for home loans.
He said that after a few years when the property increased in value, they would repay the foundation from the increased equity in the house.
For further information contact Mr Buijs on 0414 848 060 or glennbuijs@gmail.com
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