Carlos and Santos Rodriguez
From November 17th to the 22nd, hundreds of Fuller Center volunteers will build houses with 16 partners families in El Salvador. The Rodriguezes are one of the families that will move from a leaky tin shack to a safe, simple, affordable home. Like hardworking couples everywhere, Carlos and Santos Rodriquez dream of a better life for themselves and their baby, but they need a hand up—not a hand out—to make their dream come true.
Carlos (age 22) and his wife Santos (age 19) Rodriguez are a newly-married couple with a baby daughter, Gloria Pamela. They live in Santa Clara, one block away from our construction site. They have a very small tin house built on Carlos’ grandmother’s land. His grandmother (Maria Jesus Rodriguez) lives next door in a small, one-bedroom house that was built by a humanitarian organization called Fundasal after the 2001 earthquake. She lives with her granddaughter and her great granddaughter and is very frail.
The young family’s tin house leaks and has no windows. The conditions are not healthy for bringing up their baby. They share a very dirty latrine with the rest of the family.
Carlos and Santos are madly in love and believe in working towards a brighter future for their newborn baby. They both dropped out of high school temporarily as young teenagers to help their own families. But now, Carlos is finishing high school in Escuela Santa Clara and also works as a librarian in the school. On weekends he works as a waiter at a beach resort to make extra money.
Santos used to work at a company called Lubricentro in the town of El Rosario, where she was in charge of keeping the inventory at the warehouse. El Rosario is far from Santa Clara so she had to quit working there after getting pregnant. Currently she is at home taking care of baby Gloria Pamela. She is also in the process of finishing high school on weekends. In a few months she wants to find a job, and her mother has offered to care for the baby during the day.
This couple is a great example of very poor but hardworking people who want to succeed in life no matter what sacrifices they have to make. They are loved and respected by their neighbors and family. Carlos is performing the required sweat equity for the family’s Fuller Center house, and Santos volunteers with The Fuller Center. We are blessed to be partnering with them as new homeowners and believe God has a very special plan for this family.
