House Building
Our main goal is to avoid kids be taken away from their families by government institutions and prevent them to be put in a foster care centers; or even worse, one of our main concerns is that because of the lack of possibilities and by not having a roof, kids end up on the streets or involved with gangs. We work closely with ISNA and CONNA which are both institutions that oversee the wellbeing of the children in El Salvador, in most cases we go through the application process with families that have been referred directly by either ISNA or CONNA. They send us information about families that are in danger of being separated because of bad living conditions for their children due to poverty.
We started building houses in 2009 and decided to continue building since then, we finance our program mainly through donors and we thank God for allowing us to serve Him through this program and for His provision for the families, sometimes we would partner with different ministries or NGOs to build these houses. During the year we take teams in short mission trips to help us build houses for the program. This is a great way to help others.
We build houses for families in the rural area of El Salvador that are considerate to be in moderate to extreme poverty, apart from the previous scenario we also help other families in need, specially to families that have children and are struggling to keep them studying and do not have a house with the minimum conditions for the child’s proper development, in some other cases we might even take applications from families that are in danger or have been affected by nature disasters including, tropical storms, flooding, etc.
These houses give hope to families that cannot afford a place to live in and provides shelter to the children and a big financial relief to the family. It really depends on the situation, sometimes the family may or may not own the land where they live and that’s one of the reasons why we have two type of houses to build:
Forever Concrete Homes
This type of house is made with Cinder blocks, cement and steel, with a 50-year roof. It is a 20 ft x 20 ft house with 2 bedrooms and a large living room/kitchen. These are preferred when the family or organization has legal ownership of the land and for large families, time of construction is around one month.
The cost is $5,700 per house. $1,700 to furnish the houses.
Duplex
This house is made with Cinder blocks, cement and steel, with a 50-year roof. It is a 20 ft x 30 ft house with 1 room. The house is built for 2 families with a shared wall in the middle of the house. The size for each family is 10x20 with a 10x10 indoor latrine, shower and dish area. They also have a small front porch area. These houses are great for smaller families or 2 families that live on the same property that want separate spaces. These are preferred when the family or organizations has legal ownership of the land. Time of construction is 4 to 6 weeks.
The cost is $7,200 per duplex. $1,700 to furnish both houses.
Prefab wood houses
Wood Houses
These are prefabricated wooden houses and for families who are squatting on a land that is not theirs. The method in which these houses are built allows them to be disassembled and reassembled if necessary.
Our houses are also built with a rain collection system that allows the family to collect rainwater that can be used to clean, wash clothes or even to drink water if they have access to proper filtration systems.
These houses are built with wood and fiber boards, this type of house is 10 ft x 20 ft with a height of 92 ” with an internal space of 17.50 square meters. The house is placed on 12 block bases with a height of 16 "to 24" above the ground, the house has 2 steps in the entrance. Made of waterproof material (fire and water resistant) with 4 ft x 8 ft plates and 10 mm thickness Plyrock for the walls and a 4 ft x 8 ft plates and 20 mm thickness Plystone for the floor.
The roof is held by a wooden structure using 2”x4” and 2”x2”, aluminum and zinc sheet 4 meters long x 1 meter wide, 1 six meter gutter and a plastic barrel for rain collection. The pieces are built in the warehouse, walls of 10ftx 86 " per, 3 windows of 30" x 30 "and a door of 30" x 75 ". The estimated durability for this house is 8 to 10 years.
The cost is $2,900 per house. $750 to furnish the house.