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Building Beyond Borders

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Colony is proud to sponsor Amandah Peebles, Credit Manager for The Westman Group who had the opportunity this past April to truly experience the greater happiness that comes with giving. Amandah and 28 colleagues from her church (Strathmore Alliance, Strathmore Alberta) traveled to Tijuana Mexico to build homes for families living in poverty. Tijuana is one of the most densely populated areas of Mexico and there resides the highest percentage of impoverished families.

It took three years to arrange the mission that was coordinated by Amor Ministries in San Diego. Amor Ministries work with local pastors to help decide the appropriate candidates for receiving a new home. In order to qualify, a family must own their own plot of land to protect them from being evicted by the owner once the new house is built. In this part of Mexico, families earn a wage of $200 per month, with their mortgage costing $170 to $180. The typical family lives in a one-room house with one double bed sleeping 5 to 6 people and no electricity or running water.

During this 10 day trip Amandah's group was able to complete two 12' x 22' homes in a matter of three days, completely by hand. "The reason we work with no power tools or anything is else is because we're showing them that this can be done under their own power... They need to know that all they need is some sand and gravel, some wood and some elbow grease," said Amandah who mentioned that the recipients of the homes were encouraged to help with the building. On the fourth day, when the building was complete Amandah's crew returned to the site to give the keys to the families. "They've never had a door to their house and actual windows...so now they've got two doors with a key and drapes. To have curtains, you're really kind of special to have curtains, just the real basic things we take for granted," she noted.

Amandah expressed that this was not only an opportunity to help out families in need, but also an opportunity for this group to build friendships with one another and really learn to work together. "You think you know people until you have to go on a trip like that with them and it was such an amazing thing to get to really know these people, it was just as much a blessing for us as it was for the people you're building the house for." The experience was also overwhelming for the youth involved. "There were 5 kids between the age of 15 and 21 that had never been anywhere, and these kids were so amazed at the poverty for one thing and they could not believe how happy people could be with so little and realized how much they had themselves."

Despite this being the second mission of this sort that Amandah has had the opportunity to be a part of, she stated, "it doesn't matter what you see on tv, you're never really ready to go to meet the people to see how poor they are," yet overall Amandah described her adventure as, "a truly amazing experience." She also encourages anyone and everyone to join in, and experience the same joy that she had, in helping those in need.

Colony applauds Amandah and her colleagues and hopes to see the continuation of this program for many years to come.

© 2008, Colony Management Inc..
www.colonybuildings.com

Building Beyond Borders
Posted by Colony Management on Thursday, August 09, 2007


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