Day Two
Salvador Cruz and volunteer Lynnie McCrobie of Virginia
Tuesday, November 18th, everything started coming together at the build. Volunteers and homeowners were learning to communicate and work together; all were working hard but having lots of fun. And behind the scenes, two very important things were taking place. The first was important to our partner families, and this was the assignment of individual houses to each family. The second was important for volunteers, and this was the the beginning of visits by small groups of Fuller Center builders to the families’ current neighborhoods and houses to see the terrible conditions they had been living in but would soon leave behind.
Family Selection
Construction leader Rob Beckham (center) consults with team
Family selection began several months before the build when Trish Stoops and Carmen Gallardo, former project coordinators for FCH El Salvador, met with the mayor of San Luis Talpa, Don Tito, to get lists of families in the area who needed help. The lists had been forwarded to Don Tito by a grassroots organization in San Luis Talpa called an ADESCO (Asociación para el Desarollo de la Comunidad/Community Development Association). Here’s a great explanation of of the ADESCO from the Adventures of Natalie Foxworthy:”…it’s a community organization in the smaller rural cantónes that plans and executes community projects based on needs. An ADESCO must be accepted by the mayor of its ruling pueblo. Not every small village has an ADESCO—it is really up to the community members to pull themselves together, form a group and make changes.” In a nutshell, the ADESCOs take the needs of the people to the mayors, and the mayors try to find ways to meet their people’s needs.
Trish and Carmen made visits and follow-up interviews to select the final families, who had to meet The Fuller Center’s qualifications of not owning land, being able to repay a modest no-profit, no-interest mortgage, and willingness to do sweat equity on their own houses and those of other families. They began their sweat equity in late spring. Click here to see a list of the families and their house sponsors. (Note: Three families moved into houses completed before the Blitz Build so they had no individual sponsors; they did participate in the dedication ceremony, however.)
Welcome Home!
Peggy Fuller, Jacob Battle and Dianne Fuller with neighborhood kids
Until today, families did not know which of the 16 houses would become theirs. To make sure that everyone does great work on all the houses, not just their own, FCH often waits until the houses are almost complete before making the assignments. Personal situations such as keeping relatives close to each other, number of members in the family and even family feuds were considered in selecting who got which one or two-bedroom home.
Once families were matched with their homes, the house sponsors—who had donated $5,500 to pay the materials cost of one house—were introduced to the families that would move into the house they sponsored. The bonds grew deep between the families, sponsors and work teams during the week.
Up Close and Personal
Kitchen in the old neighborhood
The current neighborhood of the FCH families, full of tin shacks and other makeshift dwellings, is located minutes from the build site. Slowly and as unobtrusively as possible, volunteers began visiting the poverty housing to see first-hand where the families had been living. Sometimes translators accompanied them so they were able to ask questions about the struggles these families face. “You see it on TV. You read about it. You see poverty in your own town, but you can never, ever imagine that people live this way until you’re in it,” said Lynda Spofford, former vice president of communications and development of FCH and now with the Chattahoochee Fuller Center Project. “It’s eye-opening and it’s shocking, but what’s even more shocking is how happy people can be and how much hope they still have.”
Photojournalist Shane Bevel of The Tulsa World, volunteering to document the build this week, noted something similar. “It’s unbelievable that someone can live in a house made of Hefty bags and sticks. It’s also unbelievable how clean and tidy they keep that house because it’s their home.” Check out some panoramic views of poverty housing and the “old neighborhood” on Shane’s blog.
