With the advice of local organizations, we visit villages known to be home to families in extreme poverty. There our team conducts interviews and determines which families are in greatest need. Construction timetables are established for each home, volunteers teams are scheduled, and materials are purchased.

Maria Ermelinda, a 47-year-old woman from Los Galvanes, supports her family with the help of her mother, her two sons and what little work she is able to find. She bore 14 children, of which only six remain, and she tells us the agonizing tale of the death of her other eight children and especially that of Samuel. Samuel, who at the age of 20 was hit by a truck, was her friend as well as the major provider and role model of the family. They settled on this piece of land over 16 years ago, when one evening her mother-in-law kicked them out of her home. They began walking, she and her then five children, until exhausted they came upon an empty parcel of land. It was here that they slowly began setting up their meager home, brick by brick and carving a life out for themselves.

When Casita Linda first met Maria Ermelinda, she was living with her six children and three grandchildren in a two-room adobe shack with a leaky roof, no plumbing and a small fire room serving as a kitchen. Two half-starved dogs and a cluster of cacti protected them from trespassers. Maria Ermelinda had suffered with an abusive, alcoholic husband, who had moved back to his mother's home and was unable to help his family financially. Maria Ermelinda reported that It is very difficult for them to find work and they are barely subsisting on what the she and her children can earn, and what the community has been able to help them with.

We met her 17-year old daughter, Yareli, and her  two children (a two-year-old and a one-month old baby). She has dreams. She wants to learn English and she used our time together to practice the few words she knows. She would love to be able to take a course in English in San Miguel but with barely enough money to buy tortilla masa this is something that is not in the realm of possibilities.

We also talked with her 23-year-old daughter, Maria Elena, who has a six-year old son named Juan, who later helped with the construction, in between throwing a little rubber football with any one of the volunteers whom he could rally for this. He walks to school in Los Galvanes and with the help of the Feed the Hungry program, he gets a good meal there.

The new house built by Casita Linda has been a blessing and gift to her family.

“Why did they choose us?” Maria Ermelinda asks. “We are one of the poorest families in this community and they do try and help as much as possible, but this is something unexpected. Now that they have given us this house, I believe we will be much better off, there will be more room for my family, and when it rains we won’t get wet.”