It’s the 12th shelter Sierra Evangelical Lutheran Church has built in Agua Prieta’s Ladrillo Project. To many Americans, these buildings may seem not much larger than a tool shed, but to the homeless families of Sonora, Mexico, they are houses, starter homes, shelters from the freezing temperatures of winter, and the skyrocketing surges of summer heat.
|
|
On Jan. 5, Sierra Lutheran Church started another house in Agua Prieta as part of the Ladrillo Project which is run out of Immanual Lutheran Church in Douglas. (Courtesy of Sierra Lutheran church)
The 14-by-28 foot house is a simple room in which families live, eat and exist.
Built on weekends by adults and youth from area Lutheran congregations, and other denominations and businesses, the work is under the guidance of Agua Prieta Family Shelters Inc. The intention is to house families who are forced to live in cardboard hovels often walled with used tires and roofed over with castaway corrugated metal, discarded canvas, plastic or other materials in more favorable conditions.
Jim Cleven heads Sierra Lutheran’s efforts. He says the Ladrillo organization has finished about 12 houses a year, with more than 80 houses completed in 15 years, enabling 900 individuals to have a relatively warm home in the winter, and a more pleasant escape from the heat in the summer.
If not perfect, they are steps above what they’ve had.
An amiable and knowledgeable director, Cleven is a former Boy Scout leader who has won high honors for his service to scouting, He’s been putting those skills to work in Agua Prieta for several years.
A few years ago, the shelters cost each about $2,000 to erect. That amount has almost doubled to $3,500 today, with all the materials purchased in Mexico. Plumbing and electrical work is provided by the families as they are able. Some connect a hose to a nearby standpipe to obtain water. The families also are to put in the footings and finish the floor inside the dwelling with sacks of concrete the builders give. Ownership comes with personal involvement, so that families that help with the projects know the gift is in being part of the building, not excluded from it.
As to bathrooms, well, let’s just say they are most primitive possible. That, too, is up to the owner of the lot. For heating and cooking, families fashion a 55-gallon drum into a heater, which are vented. The “third world” is not an ocean away — it’s only an hour’s drive.
With about 100 families on the waiting list for such shelters, first it is required that the mother own the land on which the dwelling is to be built. Secondly, single parent households with children get a higher priority. It is explained that often when the man of the family owns the land, he sells it when money is needed; the matriarch is much more reluctant to give up the hope for a house and holds on to it.
Some 22 individuals came from SELC last Saturday and met with a team of a dozen youth and three adults from Living Water Lutheran Church, Scottsdale. Thomas Brown, a long-time worker on the Ladrillo Project and a Sierra Vista student at University of Arizona, brought three friends along.
Their job was to continue to lay adobe bricks until they reached the 12th level. At that time, scaffolds would be required. With two other church groups waiting in the wings ... with their own scaffolding ... it was what Cleven called “the natural stopping point.” Having met for the drive to Mexico at 7:30 a.m., they returned home well after 5 p.m. feeling a sense of accomplishment.
Not only did the youth serve as bricklayers, they also bonded with the family whose house was under construction. Gabriella, a mother with seven children, all under junior high age — the family loved the attention. The game of choice was soccer.
The workers are asked to bring gloves, hat, water and a lunch, but the tools are provided. “All ages and skill levels are welcomed,” insists Cleven, “as there is something for everyone to do.”
“Our devotion,” writes the Rev. Marcia Kifer from Scottsdale, “was about moving out of our abundance to recognize the poverty and need of others. This experience provides an outlet for the compassion and love of our kids. They have lots to give, but they also have lots to learn from the Mexicans.”
Said Mike Winter, 14, “I’ve learned that some Mexicans are poor, but they enjoy their lives. I think its fun to help build houses and to play soccer with the kids.”
The experience made Sarah Selbo, 16, and Bailey Schultz, 15, not only able to see a bit of the “hardship and poverty” existing all over the world, “but to “appreciate what we have so much more.”
It’s an ongoing event. The crew will meet again in Sierra Lutheran’s parking lot next Saturday at 7:30 a.m. for another excursion into practical Christianity.
For information about the Ladrillo Project, go online to http://www.apshelters.org/index.php. Jim Cleven may be reached at 378-2003.
Comments