Pedro Valenzuela is 51 years old and has worked hard all his life struggling to make ends meet. Pedro does whatever work he can find to support his wife and their 5 children. Right now he works at a junkyard as a gofer, running to get this part and that, sifting through piles of debris to find whatever auto part or salvage material is being asked for. He makes only a few pesos a week but is grateful to at least have some work.
Pedro's wife and two children pictured in front of their pallet house.
The whole family lives in one small room made up of discarded pallets and cardboard. And literally it is one room – no kitchen, no bathroom, no separate sleeping quarters. There is only one bed to share and the rest sleep on the dirt floor. They have no refrigerator and only a tiny stove on which to cook their meals.
Pedro’s family receive groceries each week from our Food Bank. They have also been on our house-building waiting list for over a year. The problem is that where they live (and have deed to the land) is high up on a hill. There is no road to their house, only a walking path. When our building team checked out the location they did not know how they would get the materials needed up to the site, so the request was put on hold. Just this week Pedro pleaded with us, “I will carry the materials up there myself. I have a good neighbor who lives down below who has offered to let us store bricks and supplies at his house. Other neighbors have said they would help me carry stuff up the hill. Please — we are desperate.”
The tiny white dot about an inch above the cement and white wall house is the room where Pedro and his family live.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. So with everyone’s help we plan on starting construction soon.