Whistlerites to build house in Baja

This August an impoverished family in Baja, Mexico will move into a new house built by Whistler volunteers.

BuildBaja, a charity that works to alleviate poverty in the Baja region, helps groups of 25 to 40 volunteers to complete a house in just one week.

Kristen Card     and her husband David Wiebe will be leading the project from Whistler with the help of several other Whistlerites, the Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium and volunteers from Victoria.

Diane Maskell, President of the Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium, is keen to give support. “Kristen just spoke to us last week, so we haven’t got galvanized yet,” she said.

“We have one or two members who are interested in going, and we are considering donating some money,” she said, adding the club also has some supplies to contribute.

The BuildBaja houses are for indigenous families, who moved from other parts of Mexico to work, only to join the vast numbers of unemployed people in the region. The area on which the Whistler effort is focused is around six hours’ drive south of San Diego.

“It’s honestly brutal living conditions,” said Card, who has been involved with the organization for six years. “Most families live in structures of plastic, sticks and cardboard.

“They earn around $8 or $9 a day,” she said, adding that with so little income, families have to chose between buying land or educating their children.

Card clearly loves building these houses. “It ends up being a massive neighborhood effort. They are so thankful — it’s really a transformation.”

The houses are fitted with solar panels, and also wired for electricity. If the group has time and sufficient money, it builds a fence and buys chickens for the family.

After the house is complete, the family remains in contact with the non-profit organization International Distribution and Training (IDT). Family members are encouraged to attend IDT classes, which teach skills designed to help the families become economically secure.

Card arranges meetings with her volunteers before departing, to educate them about the Baja culture and teach them some Spanish. She has taken groups of high school students in the past, and hopes to increase the number of projects in the future, possibly to include Haiti.

BuildBaja attracts volunteers from all backgrounds.

“There’s no qualification. You don’t need to be good at building,” she said.

In the past 10 years, volunteers have built about 1,000 homes.

Whistler’s Church on the Mountain and the Saanich Baptist Church from Vancouver Island support Card’s work. She emphasized, though, that the project is about addressing people’s physical needs, not spiritual ones.

“You don’t have to be a Christian person, if you want to help out. But like most humanitarian organizations, it’s backed by a Christian organization,” she said.

The Whistler group will go to Mexico from Aug. 15 to 22. The trip costs each participant $1,200 — which covers air fare, food, accommodation and construction materials for participants. There’s no age restriction, volunteers typically vary between high school age to people in their 80s.

Donations are also welcome, whether financial, or of other essential supplies. Blankets, towels, suitcases and dufflebags, clothes (for children, infants and adults), sports equipment, instant coffee, bed linen, new toiletries (such as toothbrushes, combs) and backpacks are especially useful.

The region is cold at night, so polar fleece items, long-sleeved shirts, pants and other warm clothes are worn throughout the year. Stickers, bubbles, colouring books, crayons, balloons and stuffed animals are also given to the local children.

Card can be contacted at buildbaja@hotmail.com or at the Marketplace Starbucks.