Sudbury's Brown's Concrete helps build home in Tijuana, Mexico

Sudbury's Brown's Concrete Products Ltd. had a helping hand in providing a new home to a family in need in Tijuana, Mexico on Feb. 4-5, 2014.

Organized by the Homes of Hope program and Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Tijuana, the home build project brought together 22 people from across North America. Brown's Concrete was one of seven companies involved in the build.

The story was featured in a newsletter from Rosetta Hardscapes, from Charlevoix, Michigan, another one of the seven companies involved in the project.

The home was built over two days and will help a family of three adults and five children.

“It's worthwhile to put your effort into it,” said Ralph Herold of Brown's Concrete in the newsletter. “You can make money in a lot of ways, but people are more important. It's good to give back.

“The gift you’re giving this family is profound,” said Sean Lambert, founder of Homes of Hope. “They are what I call ‘working poor’ or the ‘fighting poor.’ If you help people in the wrong way, you actually hurt them. That’s why we only build for people who’ve fought to buy their own land.

“That shows that these families fought to save up for the down payment and that they’re managing their money enough that they can spend roughly 50 per cent of their income on their land payment each month. The gift you’re giving would take them 10-15 years for them to achieve on their own.”

Despite Tijuana’s proximity to the States, the poverty in this border town is very prevalent. The neighbourhood chosen for this home build project is full of makeshift houses built of pallets, broken garage doors, scraps of metal, and tarps.

The hills are cut back and reinforced with retaining walls built from pallets or old tires. Thirty per cent of dwellings in Mexico are made of rubbish, according to INEGI, a Mexican government agency that conducts a census every decade. Many of the homes have dirt floors and no running water.

-This information was provided by the Rosetta Hardscapes newsletter