Julia Sevilla – Drew Estate Charities
Julia and Leonel live with their three daughters: Nicole who is one year old, Jennifer is 14 years old and Ana who is 17 years old. Leonel works as a guard while Julia works at a tobacco factory.
Julia’s house was made of old wood and she explains that Leonel always tried his best to keep the house in safe conditions and from leaking water, but the economic situation got too hard to think about fixing the house, they barely had money to eat and to think of build one was even a dream. The girls were getting sick all the time and the floor was all mud.
We asked Julia how she found out about TECHO and she smiles when she explains how she got in touch with them:
“I heard about TECHO through the TV like a year ago, and it always called my attention seeing a bunch of kids building homes for people in need, like us, we needed a house!, but I never imagined they were going to come here, to Estelí, that was dreaming because those kind of projects never come here and also all the constructions that appeared on TV where only in Managua.
One day, it was Saturday on October 2013, I was outside playing with Jennifer and Nicole, like all Saturdays afternoons and they came to my house. At first, I didn’t know about them until they said we are from TECHO, Un Techo Para Mi País. I was very surprised, because I had never seen them in this neighborhood before. I invited them in and we started to talk, they saw how my house was, so I didn’t have to explain much. Then, they started asking questions and filling papers and said they were going to come back.
They came back a couple of weeks later, to tell us we were the beneficiaries, the girls were so happy and my husband too. We all talked about what we needed to do, the volunteers explained that we needed to pay an amount of money and we needed to get involved; they would have workshops we needed to attend and participate. We accepted everything!
We both work so there was no problem on getting the money we needed to pay; we just needed to save a lot. We deposited everything in three weeks and waited until they call again to let us know when the building was.
In the meantime, we had the workshops on weekends until they came to build our house, it was a great day! The volunteers were very energetic and I helped to make lunch for them.
I thank so much to them and also all the people involved with this project. You have no idea how this helped us, they brought hope for me, my family and my neighbors. They showed us how working together we can overcome problems and that’s something I will never forget.”
Julia Sevilla now lives a more comfortable life, with less worries; she has a safe home for her family and a great attitude towards life: “We won’t get wet this next raining season and my girls won’t be walking on mud all the time. Now we try to keep everything clean to keep our home pretty!”
TECHO has a strong commitment with the community they work with, that’s why whenever they go visit they feel like a family member in their home, as well as the beneficiaries who are always willing to help the volunteers when they see them around; TECHO volunteers, in its majority, come from Managua to get to know the neighborhood and do interviews to the families they will be working with, this way they make friends for life.
It’s also for this reason, that they can spread all this positive energy during their workshops, expressing words of motivation to the families and always inspiring them to reach goals, either smallest or big ones. All can happen with the right amount of will power, this is the message they are always trying to spread among the community.
Please consider donating if you have the means. Even the smallest donation is appreciated. Thank you from all of us at Drew Estate.
