Community Service

The House that DOM Built | The Department of Medicine gives back to the community

Two years ago, the Department of Medicine took on a major commitment: donating money and volunteer time to build a Habitat for Humanity house. The partner family, Kokou and Eya Ayite and their children, were refugees from Togo who left Africa in 2001 to escape harsh conditions and build a better life for themselves in the U.S. Part of the better future they envisioned was owning their own home — but in 2004, the best they could manage was a unit in the Sunrise Trailer Park, in Charlottesville’s Belmont-Carlton neighborhood.

That was the year the City announced that the trailer park had to be demolished due to unsafe conditions, and the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity stepped in to purchase and redevelop the property with new homes and affordable housing units – including places for Sunrise Village residents, if they chose to stay.

In August 2012, DOM chair Mitch Rosner spoke at the dedication of the Ayite’s new home, which DOM staff, together with the Ayite family and other community volunteers, helped to build. The Ayites cut the ribbon, and moved in over the next month – starting a new chapter in their lives in Charlottesville. The DOM’s commitment has involved major department-wide fundraising efforts and many hours of hands-on volunteer work at the site. “While it still has a way to go to reach its financial goal, the effort has been worth it,” says Brian Gittens, director of DOM Human Resources. “Working together on the house has been a great way to build our own sense of community and teamwork–-which can be hard to sustain in a department as big as Medicine. And this is a very hands-on way to respond to a critical problem in our community – the lack of affordable housing. It’s great to be able to go over to Belmont and see ‘the house that DOM built.'”