OUR MISSION

Our mission is to provide new, basic brick houses to the poorest of the poor in the San Juan de Limay region of Nicaragua with all donated funds going directly to building these houses.

Please take the time to view our slide shows and read more about who we are and our mission. We wish to share with you the personal, uplifting experience this project is for the people who receive a home from your donations.

Please click the following link for more information from our January 2016 Mission Trip.

In July of 2008, four volunteers went on a mission trip to San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua. We met with the local committee and agreed on general guidelines for selecting housing recipients, as well as the basic size and construction materials of the houses to be built. The guidelines for housing recipients are:

  • Candiates must own their own land.
  • Preference is given to elderly, chronically ill, and single parent families who were not receiving financial support from relatives working outside Nicaragua.
  • Political affiliation and religious affiliation are not a factor.

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We agreed that houses would be approximately 20 by 20 feet and that they would be made of brick (made locally) and floors would be of the same material. Only metal roofing material would have to be purchased from outside the region. We agreed that there would be a building foreman and two paid laborers and that all other building assistance would be from the benefiting families, their friends and other volunteers. In addition, each house would get a new outdoor latrine if necessary.

Experience has shown that each house costs, on average, $2,600 (this includes labor and material costs). Any savings during the building of a given house would be directed to the repair of other houses in the community. For example, there might be sufficient roof tiles from a previous house on the site, therefore, no metal roofing was necessary; or there might already be a serviceable latrine, so a new latrine wouldn't need to be built -- these savings would be directed towards making repairs on otherwise serviceable houses in the community.

Since July of 2008, we have provided the funds for over 250 houses to be built. The house building coincides with the dry seasons and, on average, ten houses are built every six months. Our initial goal was to build 100 houses. Since surpassing that goal we have set a new goal of 500 houses for the poorest of God's poor. In addition to the houses that have already been built, we funded the construction and furnishing of an old age home, Casa de Transfiguration, in the town of San Juan de Limay. Casa de Transfiguration also serves as an Adult Day Care Center. While most of our donations, to date, have come from St. John Vianney parishioners, more and more donations are coming from outside our parish through word of mouth and the occasional newspaper story. We now get donations from across the United States.