The 10 women, chosen from among 45 applicants, are working on Habitat projects, at Cary Home for Children, at Food Finders' Food Bank and with the DARE drug awareness effort. Locally, it has built 80 homes in 15 years. People need housing, no matter what their ideologies are, and everyone agrees that houses should be built to fill a need. The women are staying with local families. They have visited with the Amish in northeastern Indiana to learn about their low-tech farming and to see how a minority group is able to survive and prosper.
Spirituality is their primary quality.
They are beautiful people. Natalia Petrova and Svetlana Popova also spent time Wednesday afternoon as Habitat volunteers on Washington Street. Popova, who has degrees in teaching and economics, is an inspector in a customs office and a drug prevention volunteer. Petrova is chief agronomist on a cooperative farm that employs 80. She also is a local deputy, the equivalent of a county council member.