Category Archives: The Americas

Bolivia, The Americas, The Fuller Center for Housing, Travel, Volunteering

Oruro, Bolivia (March 2023)

The team had an amazing week in Bolivia working with the Fuller Center for Housing. Our team of 13 volunteers made great progress on a new home for Julio and his 12 year old daughter Juliet. We worked side by side with local masons, translators, other staff members and our fantastic bus driver turned wheelbarrow pusher!

The Fuller Center Bolivia was started by two brothers, Carlos and Alex Aramayo, who had previously built 600-700 homes through an independent organization. They joined the Fuller Center so they could be part of something larger and have a greater reach. Their focus is primarily in working with indigenous families who have been lured to the city with hope for a better life, but find themselves living on the urban periphery in expensive, less than ideal conditions. Our team was the first to visit the new project location in Oruro – a special treat!

About the Global Builders Program

Global Builders is The Fuller Center for Housing’s short term volunteer program, sending teams on domestic and international home-building trips, where partner families help build the homes and then will repay the cost on a no-interest basis to help more local families. All trips are hosted by our trustworthy Fuller Center covenant partners around the world, who love having volunteers join them in serving God by partnering with the poor. 

For more information or to join a team, visit https://fullercenter.org/global-builders/

About The Fuller Center for Housing

The Fuller Center for Housing, faith-driven and Christ-centered, promotes collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need worldwide. Their foundational principles include the beliefs that: We are part of a God movement, and movements don’t just stop. We have been called to this housing ministry; we didn’t just stumble into it. We are unashamedly Christian, and enthusiastically ecumenical. We aren’t a church but we are a servant of the Church. We are faith-driven, knowing that after we’ve done all we can do the Lord will help finish the job — something that requires us to stretch beyond our rational reach. We are a grass-roots ministry, recognizing that the real work happens on the ground in communities around the world through our covenant partners — so a large, overseeing bureaucracy isn’t needed. We try to follow the teachings of the Bible and believe that it says that we shouldn’t charge interest of the poor, so we don’t. Government has a role in our work in helping set the stage, but that we shouldn’t look to it as a means to fund the building of homes.

To learn more, visit https://fullercenter.org.

This post contains information provided by the Fuller Center for Housing.  Their help and support is much appreciated.

Puerto Rico, The Americas, The Fuller Center for Housing, Travel, Volunteering

Meet Don Wilman and Abigail

It’s time to get back to the work! Next week I’ll be traveling with a team of volunteers to Maunabo, Puerto Rico. While there, we will help to improve the home of Don Wilman and Abigail. Let’s meet this family!

Don Wilman and his wife Abigail inherited their home from Abigail’s parents. They shared the home with their adult daughter and their granddaughter. But when Hurricane Maria struck as a category 5 storm, their lives were forever changed.

Abigail recounts those terrifying 48 hours while their family endured:

We “believed that the house was falling on us but there was nowhere for us to go. We couldn’t leave my husband [bedridden following knee surgery] alone. The hurricanes destroyed the doors and several windows, the walls and ceiling cracked.”

“It was a horrible day and night. Our granddaughter was screaming. My husband was motionless. I couldn’t breathe.”

Once the storm passed, more problems arose. “My daughter and my brothers looked everywhere for somewhere we could shelter.  There was no electricity for the therapies I [asthma] or my granddaughter [kidney disease] needed. It was very distressing. Then came the mold and the moisture on the walls. We did not qualify for housing aid because our house belonged to my parents.  We did not have the resources to repair it as we wanted. We already had a lot of medical bills. Those increased following the hurricane.” Abigail recounted her experience.

She added, “We cried constantly.”

In order to seek medical treatment, Abigails daughter and granddaughter left Puerto Rico for the mainland of the US. Soon after, Abigail and Don Wilman followed because their house was no longer habitable. Depression threatened to consume them until they found an opportunity for assistance from The Fuller Center for Housing – Puerto Rico.

Our team is excited to assist Don Wilman and Abigail achieve their dream of returning to their family home in Puerto Rico. Over the course of our week on the island, we will break down some walls in order to convert it to a larger, handicapped accessible home with two rooms.  We will repair doors and install new windows, build a closet and a ramp for accessibility, change the entrance, and upgrade the electrical system. We will also rebuild the kitchen, plaster, and paint. 

Stay tuned for a post-build update on our progress!

*Thank you to the Fuller Center for Housing and the Fuller Center – Puerto Rico for providing information and photos used in this story!

The Americas, The Fuller Center for Housing, Travel, Volunteering

Nuevo Cuscatlán, El Salvador (May 2022)

The team had an amazing week in El Salvador working with the Fuller Center for Housing and People Helping People in this community of 130 homes. In addition to our team of 25 volunteers, we worked with 6 staff members, 6 volunteer translators, multiple future homeowners, approximately 35 local skilled workers and a crew of ~70 inmates participating in El Salvador Plan Cero Ocio (work release/rehabilitation). We accomplished a lot and had some fun along the way!

El Salvador, is the smallest Central American country yet with a popluation of 6,090,646 ( est.), it is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.  Approximately 700,000 Salvadorans are in need of decent, adequate housing. An estimated 30.7% of the population lives below the poverty line and over 40% of the rural population lives in homes with dirt floors and impermanent wall materials. Within the last few years, the local goverment has been instrumental in helping families obtain full ownership and title to the land where they reside. However, many Salvadoran families continue to struggle to survive while living in dilapidated housing subject to natural disasters such as flooding, mudslides and earthquakes.

The Fuller Center has been building in El Salvador since 2008 and has completed over 350 homes in communities throughout the country.  Our specific project took place in the community of Nuevo Cuscatlán, just outside San Salvador.  We assisted partner families as they built two-story homes of about 600 square feet with 3-4 small bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and an indoor shower with flush toilet. Homes are made of blocks with simple metal roofs. The partner families will repay the cost of building the homes using no-profit, no-interest loans over a 12 year, 7 month period.  A decent home has been shown to improve numerous health measures, educational outcomes, and a family’s overall well-being.  

About the Global Builders Program

Global Builders is The Fuller Center for Housing’s short term volunteer program, sending teams on domestic and international home-building trips, where partner families help build the homes and then will repay the cost on a no-interest basis to help more local families. All trips are hosted by our trustworthy Fuller Center covenant partners around the world, who love having volunteers join them in serving God by partnering with the poor. 

For more information or to join a team, visit https://fullercenter.org/global-builders/.

About The Fuller Center for Housing

The Fuller Center for Housing, faith-driven and Christ-centered, promotes collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need worldwide. Their foundational principles include the beliefs that: We are part of a God movement, and movements don’t just stop. We have been called to this housing ministry; we didn’t just stumble into it. We are unashamedly Christian, and enthusiastically ecumenical. We aren’t a church but we are a servant of the Church. We are faith-driven, knowing that after we’ve done all we can do the Lord will help finish the job — something that requires us to stretch beyond our rational reach. We are a grass-roots ministry, recognizing that the real work happens on the ground in communities around the world through our covenant partners — so a large, overseeing bureaucracy isn’t needed. We try to follow the teachings of the Bible and believe that it says that we shouldn’t charge interest of the poor, so we don’t. Government has a role in our work in helping set the stage, but that we shouldn’t look to it as a means to fund the building of homes.

To learn more, visit https://fullercenter.org.

This post contains information provided by the Fuller Center for Housing.  Their help and support is much appreciated.

**Thanks to Gente Ayudando Gente for providing the team photo.

The Americas, The Fuller Center for Housing, Travel, Volunteering

Maunabo, Puerto Rico (August 2022)

We are heading to Puerto Rico! What a great way to wrap up the summer, doing some meaningful work with like-minded souls in this community.

The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, which means ‘Rich Port’, is a U.S. territory and its people are U.S. citizens. Puerto Rico is a place rich with history, diversity, and beauty – from the tropical beaches to the delicious food.    Even in the face of heart-breaking devastation and loss, those things are still true.

In September of 2017, Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Irma followed by Hurricane Maria. Either one of those hurricanes was enough to cause significant damage, but paired together they devastated the island. It’s estimated that the damages amounted to nearly $90 billion and countless homes were destroyed or damaged.

The Fuller Center for Housing Puerto Rico works to repair and rebuild damaged homes on the southeast corner of the island where the storms first slammed ashore. The largest town in this area, Maunabo, has a population of about 15,000 people and is surrounded by beautiful beaches of blue and green water on one side, and high mountains on the other that keep it secluded from the rest of the island. Volunteers work and stay in a rural community on the outskirts of town called Calzada, which has 184 families plus another 96 families in the surrounding area – all of whom are still in the midst of the long recovery process. It is a rural area far from the capital that certainly was not wealthy even before the storm. Many families are living with blue tarps as roofs and are being affected by unsanitary and unsafe living conditions because of the damage to their homes. But we can help change that!

About the Global Builders Program

Global Builders is The Fuller Center for Housing’s short term volunteer program, sending teams on domestic and international home-building trips, where partner families help build the homes and then will repay the cost on a no-interest basis to help more local families. All trips are hosted by our trustworthy Fuller Center covenant partners around the world, who love having volunteers join them in serving God by partnering with the poor. 

For more information or to join a team, visit https://fullercenter.org/global-builders/.

About The Fuller Center for Housing

The Fuller Center for Housing, faith-driven and Christ-centered, promotes collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need worldwide. Their foundational principles include the beliefs that: We are part of a God movement, and movements don’t just stop. We have been called to this housing ministry; we didn’t just stumble into it. We are unashamedly Christian, and enthusiastically ecumenical. We aren’t a church but we are a servant of the Church. We are faith-driven, knowing that after we’ve done all we can do the Lord will help finish the job — something that requires us to stretch beyond our rational reach. We are a grass-roots ministry, recognizing that the real work happens on the ground in communities around the world through our covenant partners — so a large, overseeing bureaucracy isn’t needed. We try to follow the teachings of the Bible and believe that it says that we shouldn’t charge interest of the poor, so we don’t. Government has a role in our work in helping set the stage, but that we shouldn’t look to it as a means to fund the building of homes.

To learn more, visit https://fullercenter.org.

This post contains information provided by the Fuller Center for Housing.  Their help and support is much appreciated.

Bolivia, Habitat for Humanity, The Americas, Travel, Volunteering

We are Waiting for you at Home

Nope….not at my actual home….welcome to Bolivia! I arrived here via blue skies with views of the most beautiful water I’ve seen from the air in a long time. I mean, come on. 🙂

And now, I’m excited to be volunteering with Habitat for Humanity Bolivia outside Santa Cruz de la Sierra in support of their special project, “We are Waiting for You at Home.”. This project supports families with children suffer from chronic diseases and/or disabilities. The goal is to expand and improve existing homes in order to provide a safe, healthy environment for the children to recover and thrive once they return home from the hospital. How could this not be amazing?!

We have just met our partner family. Jassmin is 15 years old but has already had 4 surgeries for retinoblastoma. She also suffers from hyperthyroidism, a speech impediment and an intellectual disability which leaves her with the mental age of a 6 year old. The good news is that she is an amazing, happy, funny, kind, giving kid AND her cancer is in remission, woohoo! The bad news is that in order to achieve this success, Jassimin’s eye was removed. When doctors attempted to place an artificial eye, her body rejected it and it too had to be removed. They hope to try again in the future – more surgery to come.

In the mean time, Jassmin lives with her mom and her two sisters, age 16 and 18 in a one crowded room with limited ventilation. Here they are during our introductions. Cute (Jassmin on the left). 🙂

These girls have had a difficult life. When their mom, Ana Maria, took Jassmin to Argentina for treatment, she had to abruptly return home when she received news that her neighbors were attempting to steal her land. And in an extremely unfair twist, their mom, Ana Maria, is also undergoing treatment for skin cancer. And just this week she was diagnosed with lung cancer. You would never know it to talk with her, this is a strong woman who loves her family fiercely and is so excited for this opportunity to improve her home.

We’ll be working side by side with this family for a week to help them achieve their dream of home ownership. I can’t wait to get to know them better and become a part of their family. <3

In April, I’ll be returning to Bolivia to again work on the “We are Waiting for you at Home” project! I’m currently recruiting teams for La Paz and Cochabamba. If you’re interested in providing financial support for families such as those of Ana Maria, please use the links here and here. Every dollar counts, ¡muchas gracias!

**Information included in this post was provided by Habitat for Humanity Bolivia. Their support is much appreciated.