"Hand-up" or "Hand-out"
Today was our first build day. My 15-year-old son, Sam, and I are newbies. This is our first time in El Salvador and our first build this morning with Shelter. A friend of mine at home questions whether going to a developing country to give a “hand-out” makes sense. Today I will find out.
The build starts awkwardly. Sam and I are like deer in headlights. We don’t have a clue what to do. Our team leader, Dan, and team members lead us through some simple tasks and all of a sudden we are in the mix. We are helping build the house! The locals jump right in and start digging holes for the foundation. We are all working on the house together, locals, the family, our team and the Shelter team but there is still a sense of people working independently.
We come across road blocks - large rocks difficult to remove, some challenges with the doors, a misplaced hole. The family receiving the home show a mix of excitement and reservation. They have been waiting a long time for this home. The father is ill with kidney failure, they have a son who lost his sight at birth, who also happens to have a healthy twin. The house will help with his health and improve their overall situation. It is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching. But there is HOPE! We finally finish our first build. The father proudly places his Shelter number above his doorway and congratulations are given. God is good!
We are an hour and a half behind schedule. I am exhausted! And we have a second build this afternoon.
After a break for lunch we are off to site number two. The single mother, Maria, is ready for us and jumps right into the fray to work side by side with us. The work goes faster. Sam and I are now seasoned veterans😊 Everyone starts to work together as equals, side by side as a cohesive unit and things are going faster. But it is very hot. One team member has to take a break because of the heat. It just makes everyone more determined.
And then our day completely changed. Sam and I had the opportunity to sit down with Maria and her son to have the “Family Connect”, the time when we sit down with the family to hear their life story and to share from our own.
Maria has been praying to God for a home for eight years. The father is not in the picture. He was in prison and died two years ago. He was not a good man. Her son, Sahir, is 14-years-old and in Grade 7. Only a difference of one year from Sam sitting beside me. I see Sam in his face. He has a great smile. I wonder if we exchanged places would I have her faith in God?
We are a gift from God, she says, and she is truly blessed by us and our team. I am humbled and overwhelmed with emotion. We all have tears in our eyes.
Maria shares her dreams for the future. With a new home that she can lock and leave unattended she wants to start her own business selling local goods. Maria has hope for the future for the first time in many years and so does her son. We close our time together with a prayer and I give Maria a big hug and don’t want to let go. God is good indeed!
When we go back to the build site, the walls are going up. Things are happening fast. A local teenager eyes the drill in my hand. I call him over and ask him if he wants to drill. He has been helping all day but not with power tools. He smiles and happily takes the drill from me. I hand him the screws and he drills them in. We laugh as we fumble with the screws and change the bits clumsily, the blind leading the blind, trying to communicate with single words and sign language. We work for a half hour together putting on trim and by the time we are done there are three other locals working with us to get the job done. Working side by side as equals. We finish the job and shake hands and slap each others’ shoulders like old friends. The house is complete.
We present Maria with her Shelter number to put above her door. Her son climbs the ladder and carefully places it with pride. We take our photos and Maria is so full of joy and both have smiles as wide as the ocean. I give her another hug and don’t want to leave the site. I reluctantly leave knowing that tomorrow we have the privilege to do this all over again.
Hand-up or hand-out? These families are partners in the process of building these homes. They work for it and invest in it. Working together on these homes, we are all beneficiaries of something good.
What I recognized today is that the families’ lives will be changed forever. And not just their lives but the lives of future generations. They now have HOPE! A home is not something that they could attain themselves, but it sets them on a new path of opportunity and possibility. And aren’t we meant to work through the struggles of life together and hold each other up when needed?
Indeed it was a very good day and one that changed my life!
Ken Hendriks