New Orleanian Credits Kindness for New Hope & New Home

AKA-sponsored Habitat for Humanity home is dedicated in Orleans Parish

Lugenia Raphell still vividly recalls the horror of being uprooted nearly two years ago, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. With her ailing mother in tow, Raphell, a customer service representative for Gulf Coast Bank & Trust, was forced to leave her job and her home and head to Memphis for an unknown fate.

But, the kindness of strangers—especially members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority—helped her weather the storm. She is on the path to a new life, in a new home and with her mother safe and protected.

On Tuesday, July 17, 2007, International President Barbara A. McKinzie led a Sorority delegation to the official dedication of a new home built by the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity organization and sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha—the first sorority or fraternity to sponsor a post-hurricane Habitat home in the city.

"I am filled with gratitude and inspired by the warmth, the generosity and the kindness of Alpha Kappa Alpha," Raphell declared. "I will forever be indebted to the Sorority for giving us stability with this new home and for allowing my mother and me to begin life in a new house with new hope."

Click here to read the full story [PDF]