Donate to a good cause! Building homes for the homeless.

[crazyates]

Last year, my youngest brother was a senior in high school, and he went with a group of 30 other high school students to build houses for homeless families in Juarez Mexico. Up until recently, Juarez was labeled as "The most violent city in the world". Not everyone is violent, but multiple drug-trafficking cartels (and their ensuing rivalries) have left their toll, and many people are homeless and/or without jobs.

My brother went through an organization called Casas Por Cristo, whose sole function is to coordinate traveling teams to come down, and build homes. They plan everything out, so then when a team gets there, all the supplies are bought for and waiting on site. It takes 15 people about a week to build these small houses, which are very basic to say the least. A few small rooms, simple plumbing and electricity run, roof, etc. But more importantly, within a matter of days a dirt pit becomes a home for a family. It's pretty cool.

Casos Por Cristo has been doing this for quite a while, and has facilitated the building of hundreds of these homes, using thousands of volunteers. Often these families are living in cramped quarters with relatives at best, or living on the streets at the worst. In the case of my brother's trip last year, the couple had a recent newborn baby, and the father was working out-of-town just to find a job. A house to call home was very much needed. Here are a couple of pics from my brother's trip.

Setting up the foundation:                          Building the walls:                                     


The (almost) completed house:                   Footprints in the threshold to the house:


Well this year, my brother is going back! Since I also work with High School students through our church, I'm also going to be going with him(!), along with a good number of kids from our church. As our group has grown, we're bringing 40 High School students, and they're going to be building 3 houses!

Our group of 40 will completely pay for the entire cost of all 3 houses, including supplies, food, airfare, hopefully something special for the families, and everything else, so it does cost money - about $1,000 per person. All of the students will be hosting fund-raisers before we leave in the middle of April, but if you thinking getting 40 High School students to fly down to Mexico during Spring Break and build houses for the poor rather than hitting up the beaches is pretty cool (I do!), then please consider donating! I've created a new address, so the donations can be publicly tracked: 1KUYDzEfLMsTojvUP1H9W4JGvUHi4cuHLw Seriously, anything you can offer would be greatly appreciated. 0.1BTC or 100BTC, I thank you.

We don't leave until the middle of April, but I'll be sure to update this thread as we get closer. When we do get back, I will be sure to post pictures of our work back in this thread. In the mean time, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Thanks
Crazyates

[1713568734]

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[1713568734]

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[polymorphous]

I'm always somewhat leery of donating to causes with a religious affiliation, but seriously have tons of respect for these kids for doing this. So, it's not much, but am going to send you 0.5 BTC to start this thread going. Hopefully more will do the same.

TX cb5f110e8e79394e38d0402dc4cb856e000600268face25e4c438166b69aff06

Best of luck with this.

[crazyates]

I'm always somewhat leery of donating to causes with a religious affiliation, but seriously have tons of respect for these kids for doing this. So, it's nice much, but am going to send you 0.5 BTC to start this thread going. Hopefully more will do the same.

I thank you very much!

[Blaksmith]

It isn't much, but there are LOTS of homeless in the world!  Good luck in getting some donations for the cause.

Cheers,
Blak

[crazyates]

It isn't much, but there are LOTS of homeless in the world!  Good luck in getting some donations for the cause.

Cheers,
Blak

Thanks! It can sometimes seem like TOO big of a problem. But like I said, they've already build hundreds and hundreds of homes already, and we are on the way to building hundreds more.

[knight22]

I just sent something for the good cause

[crazyates]

I just sent something for the good cause

I saw a donation come in, and then saw you posted here. Thanks!

[hxtop]

actually,
the same problem happened in china.
but how to solve it not just donate BTC can be solve it.
this a global problem.

[Graet]

sent a little something
do good

[constitution]

Dont take this offensively in any way, but how do we know the Bitcoins are getting where you say they are?

[crazyates]

Dont take this offensively in any way, but how do we know the Bitcoins are getting where you say they are?

None taken. I set up a new address just so anyone can see the coins as they've come in. As you can see according to Blockchain, I havn't converted the coins into USD yet. Once I do do that, I'm not sure how to publicly track their actual donation. Do you have any suggestion on this matter?

[neotrix]

1 btc more on road 

I wish you best of luck

Neotrix

[crazyates]

1 btc more on road 

I wish you best of luck

Neotrix

Thanks!

To those who have donated in the past: the increase in price over the past month means that every coin donated to date goes even farther. As it stands right now, 20% of my trip has been funded through your donations. Amazing! 

[Rawted]

Do this in America, and i'll donate regularly.

[kpriess]

Do this in America, and i'll donate regularly.

Last time I checked Mexico was still in America..

[mornaner]

Do this in America, and i'll donate regularly.

Last time I checked Mexico was still in America..

I'd say more, it actually was in North America!

[tkbx]

Do this in America, and i'll donate regularly.

Last time I checked Mexico was still in America..

I'd say more, it actually was in North America!

They've changed their minds, and they're now saying that North and South America are one continent, and Antarctica isn't a continent, but Europe and Asia are somehow still their own, separate continents.

Do this in America, and i'll donate regularly.

We've got some sound logic here, folks.  

[crazyates]

Do this in America, and i'll donate regularly.

We do plenty of stuff in our local community, but the needs aren't quite the same.

[bumbo]

Casas por Cristo relies on the labor and resources of full time staff missionaries, a board of over 100 pastors and community leaders from Juárez and Acuña, México and San Raimundo, Guatemala and nearly 7,000 annual volunteers from across North America. Through these cross-cultural mission trips, volunteer teams are presented with an amazing opportunity to build a home for a family in need.

In just one week teams transform an otherwise empty lot into a safe and secure home - complete with cement foundation, electricity, windows and doors. As a result of this experience, each family receives a tangible symbol of the faithfulness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ. As volunteers gain perspective on the extreme poverty that exists in our world, so do these families better understand God's plan for their lives and His deep desire to take care of their needs.

This is the project's self description, taken from their website. Emphasis added by me. By donating you are supporting religious missionaries who who are doing this only for their fellows, not for any homeless person, like the thread title kind of suggests.

[crazyates]

Casas por Cristo relies on the labor and resources of full time staff missionaries, a board of over 100 pastors and community leaders from Juárez and Acuña, México and San Raimundo, Guatemala and nearly 7,000 annual volunteers from across North America. Through these cross-cultural mission trips, volunteer teams are presented with an amazing opportunity to build a home for a family in need.

In just one week teams transform an otherwise empty lot into a safe and secure home - complete with cement foundation, electricity, windows and doors. As a result of this experience, each family receives a tangible symbol of the faithfulness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ. As volunteers gain perspective on the extreme poverty that exists in our world, so do these families better understand God's plan for their lives and His deep desire to take care of their needs.

This is the project's self description, taken from their website. Emphasis added by me. By donating you are supporting religious missionaries who who are doing this only for their fellows, not for any homeless person, like the thread title kind of suggests.

Thanks for taking the time to look into them. However, I think you bolded all the wrong parts. I fixed that for you. You somehow seemed to have extrapolated information about their candidate selection process from an excerpt of their site that does not have anything to do with that. I think you got confused. Yes, the organization uses local pastors who are familiar with the local community to identify candidates for the receipt of these houses, but the people we are building for do not even go to church.