Ten Dunn School students traveled to Guatemala during their winter break to give, experience, and learn.
Led by Dunn Spanish teachers Alejandra Santos and Ulises Castaneda the students fulfilled a donation to Constru Casa by The Los Olivos Rotary Club.
“The students built parts of four homes in the town of San Mateo through the group Constru Casa, which is dedicated to offering basic homes to poor families to improve their living conditions and health…
…Over the course of two weeks from late February to early March, Rotarians and the students built four homes. The Dunn group finished up the second half of one home and left three others half-built to be finished by the next crew.
Each three-room, one-bathroom home is made of 1,200 concrete blocks with a corrugated iron roof and concrete floor. At least one family member is required to work on building the house, among other requirements that the family must satisfy before getting the home…
Each house costs about $3,600 to build….”(SYVN)
Of himself, Castaneda remarked: “I’ve never been that up close to poverty…That really had an impact on me.” (SYVN)
Of his son, he observed, that, after the trip, “[he was] not the same boy who got on the airplane.” (SYVN)
A bit about Constru Casa (from their web site):
Constru Casa is a non-profit organization offering basic housing to families living in extreme poverty. Constru Casa always works in collaboration with local partner organizations to identify and select families of exceptional need. Beneficiary families participate in the construction of their home and also pay back one fourth of the total cost of their house over four years. Constru Casa collaborates with its partner organizations also in other construction projects and community service programs. Contru Casa requires donors to participate in construction.
