PrintSometimes all it takes is a leg up, not a handout.
The Enriquez family in Pacoima earned their leg up five years ago with their own sweat and commitment.
After waiting four long years, they were the first low-income family to move into homes they helped build in a project with the organization Habitat for Humanity in Pacoima.
Three children and two adults went from living in a cramped, one-bedroom mobile home to a new three-bedroom home with wall-to-wall carpeting.
It's the first thing the girls remember as they walked into their first real home feeling like a couple of princesses living a dream, the Enriquez sisters said Friday.
"There was carpeting on the floor. We thought, 'Oh, my gosh, this is where we are going to live,"' Gennessis said.
Her parents named her after the first book of the Old Testament, and her sister, Geminnis - her identical twin - was named after the zodiac sign.
They were both honor students in the San Fernando High School Magnet program and are both freshmen at UCLA now - on academic scholarships.
How they got there from such humble beginnings has a lot to do with not only their own personal drive and two strong parents stressing education, but that leg up I was talking about.
When he got the chance, Nicolas Enriquez, their father, took it.
During the week he worked in the receiving department for a company that makes audio speakers. On weekends, he picked up a hammer and nails, and joined the Habitat for Humanity volunteers who build the homes for low-income families.
Families who got lucky and qualified through a lottery drawing.
They had to make a small down payment, repay an interest-free mortgage loan, and promise to volunteer 500 hours on weekends helping build the homes.
Sweat equity it was called, and it's still the best idea I've heard of - giving low-income people a leg up, not a handout.
"There were 20 different units being built and we worked on all of them every weekend," Nicholas said. "When the girls were old enough, about 16, they joined me every weekend with a hammer and nails, and during the week, after school, they did volunteer work in the San Fernando community."
The lesson Nicholas and Marlene Enriquez were teaching their kids was simple. If someone gives you a leg up in life - a chance you would have never had otherwise - you grab it, work hard, and crack the school books to repay it.
"We were both raised to take education to the max," Gennessis said after a class at UCLA on Friday.
She is majoring in microbiology and wants to be a doctor one day who helps beat cancer. Her twin sister wants to be a psychologist.
"Our parents came from Mexico with no chance for schooling like we had. Education was everything in our house, and we weren't going to let them down."
It made a big difference having that house to study in, the girls say. Instead of sharing a desk in the cramped living room of their mobile home, studying next to a playpen with a crying baby sister in it, they now had their own rooms.
It may not sound like much to kids who have always had their own room, but to a couple of identical twins growing up in a low-income family and trying to make their parents proud, it really did make them feel like a couple of princesses in a dream.
Real carpeting and their own space!
The Enriquez family was the first family to move into the housing project and is its first real success story, says Donna Deutchman, president and CEO of the San Fernando Valley-Santa Clarita chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Twenty homes have already been built. Eleven more families will be moving into their sweat equity homes by Thanksgiving, and another six by Christmas, she says. In all, 61 homes will be built.
"The fact is that in our community there are some incredibly hard-working people who do the jobs that are the backbone of our everyday life," Deutchman said.
"We can't forget to give them the dignity they are owed. This family is just one example of the work ethic and commitment these families have. We should support and welcome them."
Give them a leg up, not a handout.
dennis.mccarthy@dailynews.com ,
818-713-3749
