Closing soon
Don't miss your chance to donate
This project is to replace all of the wood on the Mendoza family house. The wood needs to be replaced with treated wood.
My friendship with Geronimo formed in 2011 on a construction project in San Marcos la laguna Guatemala. We would sit and chat at the end of the work day with my broken Spanish and my Spanish English dictionary, to learn more about each other. Neither of us had any idea that 15 years later we would still be friends and still in each other lives.
As our friendship formed I learned a lot about the struggles of the local people and of his family specifically. He and his wife were raising 4 children in a house that was about 200 square feet. One of the daughters would stay with her grandparents as they did not have enough room for them to all sleep in their house. At the time Geronimo earned about $8 a day working in Construction. With the cost of food, clothes and school supplies, there would not be anything left to build a larger house. So we put together a community project with some other friends to make this dream happen.
In 2013 we built a house for this family. There were Volunteers from 5 different countries that came together to make this happen. We were successful with our fundraising and we were able to pay for the project. I will attach a link for the video from 2013 that Charly made of the project. We built two rooms our of adobe and added a second floor made of wood. The house is beautiful and has an incredible view of the lake. It is a special house and a wonderful family. We shared so many laughs and smiles during the project.
Here is the video from the original project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKKUnCF91AA&t=32s
Fast forward to today, the bugs have been eating the wood of the house over the last 13 years. It all needs to be replaced with treated wood. The father of the family earns about $20 a day with his work. The cost of the wood alone to fix the house will be about $5,500. At that rate, saving this amount of money would be impossible.
We will be bringing a team of volunteers down to help with the labor and make the project a smooth success. A few of the original volunteers are planning to be there as well. We will also be renting a house for the volunteers to stay at. And we will be feeding the volunteers and the family for the duration of the project. The project will be running from Dec 1st to Dec 21st. We are estimating $3000 for housing and food.
We will also need to buy hardware and tools for the project. We will be bringing some of the tools from the US. The rest we will purchase there. We are estimating about $1500 for tools and hardware.
In total we are hoping to raise $10,000 to cover the costs of the project. If we surpass our goal, we will also pay Geronimo a daily wage to work on his own house. We may also hire a family member or two for the duration of the project as well.
If this project speaks to your heart and you feel inspired to give something. Any and all donations will be appreciated. Be it $10 or $500. We will be grateful and one step closer to meeting our goal and making this project happen.
Also we are still looking for a few Volunteers, so if you are inspired to come and be a part of the project, we would love to have you. Especially if you have carpenter experience.
Thank you all and wishing you a beautiful day!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 17th November 2026 at 8:18pm CST