A Small team of UCR (University of California Riverside) students from the Project RISHI (Rural Indian Social and Health Improvement) helped paint the home of George and Carol on Saturday, April 19th. The owners of the home live in Rancho Caballero Mobile Home Park in the City of Riverside. They both have suffered from the discomfort of diabetes and are not able to take care of painting their home on their own. The park manager recently notified the couple that the home needed to be painted in order to meet park standards. George is retired from his UCR position in the campus landscape maintenance department. He still loves his gardening as evident by the many rose beds and potted plants surrounding the home. The volunteers who helped paint the home were from the Project RISHI UCR students, and also Habitat Partner Familieis Maria and Casey who are soon to be Habitat homeowners. Maria and Casey are continuing to work off their sweat equity time.

Even though the group was small they were all ready for the challenge. The home was not that large so this group knew they could get the job done efficiently. Maria started by painting the lower trim and Casey, who has worked on several projects, began by using the extension pole to start on the upper trim. The students were given high and low areas to take care of. But before starting since most of them had not painted, a quick Painting 101 lesson was given by Dave -ABWK Project Coordinator. Throughout the day, Dave continued to give pointers of how to paint the home safely and professionally. All of the students stayed to finish the home. In fact one student, had an appointment at 11:30, left and came back to finish with the group. Thats commitment! Maria and Casey painted until 1 pm and did a wonderful job. The new Habitat homeowners now have another skill set: knowing how to paint! It will surely come in handy with their future home projects.

The Project RISHI students who work together to help rural communities in India showed their commitment and determination in doing a great job for homeowners George and Carol. They stayed late in the afternoon finishing the main parts of the home. The few areas that still needed to be taken care of were painted by Habitat volunteers later in the month.

Thank you Project RISHI members, Maria and Casey for a wonderful and successful paint day! George and Carol love the new paint colors and were pleased to have the volunteers paint their home! You all did a great job!