María Elena Talavera - Drew Estate Charities

María Elena Talavera – Drew Estate Charities

María Elena sells tortillas to make some money of her own, while her Husband Jose works in the fields of a tobacco company. They have four children: the twins Jason and Ever, and their daughters Rosa and Jerling.

Maria Elena and her family spent seven years without a home; they used to live with different family members throughout this time, until they found out about TECHO and become the beneficiaries of a house.

“The first time they came to my neighborhood I was very excited for my friend and neighbor Martha, she was also in need and in March last year she got her home; as I was always around in the constructions, I started to talk with the guys from TECHO, I told them about my old house and they saw how it was. Ariana and Tito told (TECHO volunteers) us that we needed to wait to see if we could be the next beneficiaries, I told them that I trusted God that one day I would have my house. I had a lot of faith.

My old house was in very bad conditions the roof was the worst part, when it was raining season the water leaked, like if it was a colander and all the ground was only mud. The wood was rotten and it was not good, it wouldn’t last much.

The first day they came, they made us an interview and asked us to wait for an answer; they said they would do everything in their hands. A few weeks later, they came again but I wasn’t at home, so when I came back from selling tortillas Rosa told me: ‘Mama the guys from TECHO passed by and I think they are going to build our house, but they need to talk to you’, I was very happy and excited!

When I talked to them again they explained about the money we needed to pay- in three fees, so we started to work hard to save the money because it was December and on the last week the bank would close due the holidays; so I starting cooking twice the amount of tortillas to sell at home and also walked around the neighborhoods, to sell them door by door. Also we had meetings with TECHO, we talked about what were our jobs, so how much we could spend on food and how much we could save for the fees, it was very good.

When the weekend of the construction came, we needed take the old house down so we slept with neighbors. We were very excited! We had volunteers from Drew Estate and from Managua, they were very friendly and they built the house very fast – it was the first house finished that weekend! We moved the beds right away so we could sleep in our new home on the same day. They also gave us some clothes for my children and a pair of shoes for each of the twins, it was such a great blessing, they didn’t have good shoes for school; I will never forget them, I will remember those days for the rest of my life!

The first benefit for me was that I felt relieved for my children, they had more space to hang out in the house and of course now we won’t worry about raining season. We are going to be fine and dry!
This is a great blessing from God because besides of all the expenses and needs we have, now we don’t have to worry about a house, we are so thankful!

Also, like all of us who worked for having this house, I would like to see all those people who are in need also working for having one! We are a lot of people here who are in need, but also we have different needs and I think that the first one to cover is a roof over your family, more than anything, for our children who we need to help, so they can have a better future, different from ours.”