Young Volunteers with Corazon Help the Poorest of Mexico's Poor
 Stuart Kellogg - stuart@link.freedom.com
| | In the fall of 2003, in Tecate, Mexico, volunteers from the Tri Community prepare, raise and paint walls before roofing a house — all in just one day. (Photo: Brian Turner) |
As volunteers with Corazon Inc., young people from the Tri Community are helping the poor of Mexico help themselves.
Founded in 1978 by Mike Echolds, Mark Vanni and Jennie Castillion, Corazon ("heart" in Spanish) is not a handout charity.
Instead, as Brian Turner of Phelan explains, the program is rooted in the concept of familia ("family"): i.e., that people can and should help themselves and each other.
Underscoring this partnership, Corazon refers to the Mexicans in its programs as "participants" and the Americans as "volunteers."
Although Corazon's program has many facets, it's clear that Turner's favorite is Build a House in a Day, literally one day, for families who have been living in shacks.
"The Mexicans could certainly build houses themselves," he says, "but they can't afford to buy materials."
Corazon, whose headquarters are in Laguna Hills, recommends that groups consist of between 30 and 50 volunteers. But Turner has discovered that 40 is optimal: "People must feel busy the whole time — 50 is too many."
Each 16-foot-by-20-foot Corazon house costs just $6,000. Every volunteer is required to raise $150.
Turner, who belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Phelan Ward, stresses that Corazon is a nondenominational program.
"A lot of my fellow church members volunteer," he says. "But so do business friends who aren't members of the church but want a way to help others."
On the day of a build (the most recent was June 4), the 40 volunteers — mostly from Oak Hills and the Tri Community (Phelan, Pinon Hills, Wrightwood) — meet in San Diego by 6 a.m.
"It helps if some people have experience with construction," Turner says. "But Corazon provides a few lead-builders who volunteer consistently."
Having had a safety-review meeting, the group arrives at the build-site in Tijuana or Tecate between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
The slab has already been poured by Mexican participants, who also have delivered the materials.
"Because of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), we have to buy the materials in Mexico," Turner says.
"We unload the trucks, spread out the wood, and one group starts painting while others begin to frame the walls. Then we paint the trim."
"The walls are up by noon. We're done by 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. We're pretty ambitious, all working with one heart, one mind, one goal."
According to Turner, the hardest part of Build a House in a Day is raising the money.
"It would be terrible to call Corazon a week before the build-date and say we couldn't meet our commitment," he says. "After all, some family has already demolished their previous house — often a plywood shack — and been crowding in with another family."
He adds that it's easiest for Corazon to enlist volunteers ages 16 to 25: "One 24-year-old man has gone on every build since I started two years ago."
"Some of the kids work minimum-wage jobs but give their own money."
Turner and his wife, Angela, have two sons (Joseph, 23, and Christian, 20, students at Victor Valley College) and twin daughters (Emily and Katie, 18, students at Brigham Young University-Idaho, in Rexburg).
"Joseph and I have both been missionaries," Brian Turner says. "After that experience, you need to have something to do!"
Stressing that Build a House in a Day is just one aspect of Corazon, Maria Mazzenga, the nonprofit's executive director, says:
"As soon as a family, interested in bettering their life, has given 30 hours to their community — perhaps by fixing a neighbor's roof or building a retaining wall — they're interviewed by one of our community leaders, who explains the responsibilities and benefits of being a participant."
The next step is for the participants to enroll in a gardening class. This teaches them how to be responsible and how to provide their family with food.
"It's also a way for them to demonstrate commitment," Mazzenga says.
Another way to contribute is by helping to create, staff and stock community centers. And by learning and then teaching others such skills as computers, sewing, hairstyling, electrical work or welding, participants may not only get job but also save money by doing for themselves.
In deciding who should get the next Corazon house, Mazzenga says, leaders consider which participants have put in the most hours and have the greatest need.
Habitat for Humanity, a somewhat comparable program, asks future homeowners to invest hundreds of "sweat-equity" hours in the building of their own homes as well as to make mortgage payments. (The money from those payments is then used to fund construction of other Habitat houses.)
But according to Turner, on the day their house is being built, Corazon's participants show up not in work clothes but in their Sunday best:
"House-builds carry a lot of romance, for the family has probably been living in a shack. So during the build, they watch and also write a thank-you letter."
At the end of the day, there is a key ceremony.
That key is so important, says Andersen of the Interfaith Council, "because most houses in Mexico's border cities don't have locks. Therefore, somebody must be at home at all times."
When Turner is asked, "Why Mexico rather than the United States?" he says: "Because for $150,000 we can affect 25 families instead of just one."
"Corazon also strengthens U.S. relations with Mexico. And I want Mexico to be a place where Mexicans wish to stay."
The Tri Community group will go again Dec. 4, this time with Christmas presents for 45 Mexican families who've volunteered at least 100 hours in order to earn gifts of games, pots, pans, radios and microwaves ovens.
"We'll also bring a Santa Claus and take pictures of the kids with him," Turner says. "In poor countries, people have few photos of themselves, so photos are very important."
Corazon's homes are certainly not fancy. According to Gaylene Andersen of the Interfaith Council of the High Desert, each two-room house has a sleeping loft, a kitchen counter on which to put a propane camping stove, and a closet that can eventually become a bathroom.
"Until there is a sewage system, the family will use an outhouse," she says.
But participants may exchange additional community-hours for help in repairing their house or adding an addition.
"People's lives are changed," Turner says of Corazon — the lives of volunteers as well as of the people who get a house.
"American kids observe the worst poverty they've ever seen in their lives. I don't want them just to give money. If kids go down to Mexico, they can return and report to others."
Stuart Kellogg can be reached at stuart@link.freedom.com |
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