REBUILD MEXICO 2014 Join us for the trip of a lifetime ReBuild is an international community project that changes the lives of everyone involved! Young people from Urban Saints groups all over the UK come together to travel to Mexico or South Africa where they spend 11 days building homes, from scratch, for people who have never known what it is to have a safe and permanent place to live. To date USH has been involved in three ReBuild trips; ReBuild Mexico in 2010 and 2011, and ReBuild South Africa in 2012. And now coming in 2014 is ReBuild Mexico AND ReBuild South Africa! This document gives you all you need to know about ReBuild Mexico 2014. Please note: at this stage all information provided here is subject to change as the final details of the trip are put in place.
THE BASICS When? April 2014 (exact dates tbc) Where? Tijuana, Mexico Who? Anyone in school year 9 and up How much? £1,300 per person (incl. flights, in-country transport, food, accommodation, travel insurance, materials and tools for the build) How many? There are just 10 places for this trip so they will be taken on a first come first served basis What next? Contact Lauren Eden (details below) to express your interest and apply
ACCOMODATION Upon arrival in San Diego, you will be staying in local motel for the night and driving to Mexico the next day. In Mexico you will stay in a secure campground provided by Amor. You will stay in a designated area with your individual group, along with the rest of the Urban Saints ReBuild participants. The campground staff will be there 24 hours a day to prevent any unauthorised entry into the campsite. The facilities will be basic, to help you understand, in a very small way, how a Mexican family lives year round. You will sleep under canvas, you will be given 2.5 gallons per day of water for washing using a solar shower and you will experience the delights of long-drop loos! Tents will be provided but you will need to take your own bedding etc. Although it will get very hot during the day, it also gets very cold at night so clothes for both will be needed. Amor and Urban Saints will provide all food and drinking water during the trip. You will have the opportunity to learn how to cook real Mexican food. You will wash your own cutlery and crockery using the facilities provided.
THE PROGRAMME ReBuild Mexico runs two trips back-to-back with a couple of days overlap. Which week you go will determine the exact programme, but it will look something like this: Day 1 – Travel to San Diego, Mexico Day 2 – Travel to Tijuana, Mexico and set up campsite. Workshops. Evening meeting. Camp fire.
Hitchin Christian Centre, Bedford Road, Hitchin, Herts, SG5 1HF, Tel. 01462 442238
Day 3 to 7 - House building. Free time. Evening meetings and a camp fire. Day 8 – Pack down camp site. Hand over keys to families. Party for families. Travel to San Diego. Day 9 – Free time around motel and beach. Evening meeting. Day 10 to 11 - Travel home.
THE WORK SITE AND BUILD The participants of ReBuild Mexico will be divided into build teams of about 20 people, each working to build one house – that means you’ll build 7 or 8 houses in a week! Your work site will be a short bus ride from the campsite. The sites and recipients of the homes will have been chosen by the local pastors and the community. The local community are very welcoming and the work site is safe. Work starts on site at around 8am and finishes around 4pm each day. The construction method is easy to work with and does not require any prior experience or skill. The basic building project will typically be an 11’x22’ two room home with a concrete foundation, wood frame walls and stucco finished exterior. By the afternoon there is usually a number of children hanging around the build site. Each build team will have the opportunity to play and run craft activities with these children as well as prayer walking the local area.
So if you’re seriously thinking about coming then here are some things that you need to know now:
More information will be released over the coming months – watch this space! But if you’re already interested in going then contact Lauren Eden (contact details below) straight away for more info and to reserve your place.
All participants have to commit to attend:
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A training afternoon (date tbc)
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A debrief day (including a special celebration event at church ) (date tbc)
By signing up you’re committing to raising the funds. You’ll be given a payment schedule once you’ve signed up to help break it down a bit and don’t worry although it might seem like a huge amount of money we will provide you with loads of fundraising ideas, advice and support for you and your family. We will endeavor to centrally raise 10% of the fees but that still means you need to fundraise the remainder – nothing to stop you starting now!
Lauren Eden, Rebuild 2014 Team Leader (Urban Saints Hitchin) email:
[email protected] Urban Saints partner with Amor Ministries to offer these life changing trips. Amor Ministries, based in San Diego, California, has been working in poor communities across Mexico since 1980 to build homes for some of the 800 000 Mexican families who lack a basic, secure place to live. For more information about the work of Amor please visit www.amor.org. For more information about ReBuild, please visit www.urbanssaints.org/rebuild.
