Dear Friends,
I have just returned from Mexico and want to update you on some great developments on our projects there.
The community center has gotten registered to get electric power to the property paid for the hookup etc. We have an electric box installed and should have power to the center shortly.
We have also paid for the construction permit for the bathroom project and will have to do more, i.e., written plans, if and when we do more construction than the bathrooms and finishing the first floor of existing building. We have also procured all the materials to finish enclosing the property by a wall and gates in front, except the actual gate doors, which we will buy after the wall is completed and the cement columns for the attachment of the gates and door. So great progress being made.
I was also able to visit the Esperanza Young Adults Home which is now operating!! There are currently 9 young adults between 16 and 21, most are17-20. There are 6 young men living there and 3 young women. It is a great facility. It is in town; the kids can walk to school. They have retail in front of the building and already have a tortilleria as a tenant and a barbershop.
Most exciting, as you can see from the pictures, they have started a business of selling used clothing in part of the lower front of the building. This is a great business and common down there. The clothes are all donated (great business model-zero cost of goods sold!). The kids wash and sort the clothes, i.e., children’s, womens, and men’s. And they manage the business, dealing with the customers and making sales etc. Great real-life experience and development of life and business skills. We are very excited about this project and proud of the older kids.
The hardest and most scary part of life, maybe for all kids but certainly after growing up in an orphanage group home setting, is to transition to the big real world.
I saw and spent time with Arturo, one of the Esperanza directors. He came down with COVID-19 in mid-October and was very sick for about a week but it lingered and was a tough road to recovery until early December. He was the only one to get it. His wife did not nor Guillermo, the other director, or his wife or any of the other adult volunteers. And none of the kids got sick either. He is praising God that he is alive as it was a difficult time for him. Praise God!
Thanks for all your support. Even in what looks like a dark world, God is moving and doing good things. He holds us in His hands.
With Joy and Gratitude,
Cam