Building Houses for the Needy

One of the many things AOJ does for the poor is build houses for needy families who otherwise cannot afford one. Below is a photo of a family that will be receiving a new house. Right now, they are standing in front of what they call a "home" - it is made of a patchwork of various materials that do not really protect against the elements and has a dirt floor that can get messy during rainy season. Often times, the family may also live in a corn-stalk house as pictured below and you can see that these living conditions are not good for families, especially to raise children.

The process of finding a home for a needy family starts with our Social Work Department. They send staff into the community looking for families who need homes. Once they find a potential location, they conduct an evaluation that includes: condition of the current home; number of people living in the household; means of income; and, whether the family owns the land. Land ownership is an important detail because if the home is built on rented or disputed land, the family runs the risk of losing it if the land-owner decides to take back the land. Fortunately in Guatemala, land ownership is not as complicated or costly as it is in North America.

Once the Social Work Department identifies a family, the construction staff locate the site two weeks prior to the house construction in order to lay the cement. The family has an important role in this as they are the ones that lay the cement foundation for the house while AOJ staff or volunteer teams actually construct the house. Having the family involved in this way has special symbolic meaning because the act of laying the cement for a strong foundation of the house represents the family being responsible for creating a strong faith that is the foundation for a strong home.

After 2 weeks, the foundation is dry enough to start building. AOJ staff deliver all the necessary materials to the site before the volunteer team begins to build. The walls are made of a cement/dry-wall material that have been pre-assembled by our staff with wooden beams. Since the walls are pre-fabricated, it makes it really easy for our volunteer teams to come and build. You don't need any construction experience or be a handy-person to build these houses! First, the walls are drilled directly into the concrete floor. Once drilled in, the walls are then nailed together through the wooden beams so that there are no spaces between the walls. Since every wall has its own place, it's kind of like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle - just the pieces are a lot heavier!

The good thing about our houses is that it so easy that anyone can do it. We have had people as young as 9 to people who are out there building at the age of 70!

The roof is a simple structure made up of wooden cross beams and a tin roof. The roof we provide is more secure and protective than what the families were used to having before.

Once the roof is nailed in place, it is pretty dark inside the house because there is no light coming in. We need windows for that but the good thing is that they are already built into the walls. All we need to do is punch out the panels designated as the windows and presto... you have light!

The houses we build are very basic. A typical home has two rooms, one for sleeping and the other used as a sitting area. The homes do not have plumbing since all cooking is done outside with firewood, keeping with the tradition of families in this area. Washroom facilities are outside as well. Somes homes have electricity, which they use for lighting or small appliances. Other families may receive gas ovens as gifts from foreigners thinking that it would be better for the families, but sometimes this is cost-prohibitive as the monthly cost for propane can be costly.

Below is a picture of a completed house, freshly painted. The house below is a combination of "chocolate" and "cream", but we also use bright colours such as red and yellow. The majority of the houses we build are painted two-tone in keeping with the colours of the houses found in Guatemala. The whole process on average only takes about 3 hours to build and paint. Although it takes so little time to build and so little money to buy ($1500), a home like this is priceless for the families who receive them. The most touching part of the whole process is at the end when the volunteer team hands over the keys of the house to the new family. We conduct a blessing of the home with the volunteers assisting. Steve usually does an introduction and Sandra translates on behalf of the volunteers on the team who do not speak Spanish. Words are exchanged between both the volunteers and the family receiving the house, which is often a very emotional time. Since we started working in Guatemala in Feb 2008, we have not witnessed a blessing without tears being shed.

In 2008, we coordinated the construction of more than 60 homes for needy families in the rural communities of Paramos, San Luis and Pampay. That means more than 60 families have a clean floor to live on, 4 strong walls and a roof to keep out the elements, and a new start to a life with endless possibilities. AOJ is going to keep busy through 2009 as we already have 26 houses ready to be built at the time of this posting...and we are only in the second week of January!