Program areas at Build A Miracle
Building program in 2021 Build A Miracle built 30 new homes for impoverished families. All families that receive homes participate in education programs. The families receive a 540 square foot homes with 3 bedrooms, indoor plumbing, kitchen, bathroom and living/dining room. They earn their homes with a minimum of 500 hours of community service but most remain involved in our programs indefinitely and even start their own community service projects. The homes are built during build days when U.S. and local volunteers mix concrete, hammer nails and paint, and during the work week by experienced, paid builders.The Dads Program in which men on the waiting list for BAM homes, help extremely impoverished families who live in shacks and do not have land rights so do not qualify for a full home, to make their dwellings safe, poor concrete floors, reinforce wall, replace tarps with real roofing, and build septic tanks. This program has an enormous impact on the lives of the people served and the men themselves.
Other program services Build a miracle provided scholarship assistance to 4 children in Guatemala who lost their father to drowning. Other programs continued and expanded during 2022 include dental and vision care for community members 276 people served who cannot afford them on their own and support for a program that provides education to the largely forgotten children of trash-pickers about 75 people who live at the municipal dump. The Pandemic-related Direct Relief food and medicine that kept 400 families going, transitioned to helping only helping those unable to return to normal lives and also spawned the Grandparents Program where scholarship recipients visit with and provide interactive programs for the elderly in their communities.
Education Our goal is to break the cycle of poverty for every family, helping the next generation to be able to afford their own home and our academic, scholarship, trade and adult education programs are geared to make that possible. During 2022 we provided scholarships to 110 college and 108 HS students, with 35 total college grads to date. The Community Center, offers, free of charge, accredited adult elem., middle and HS, tutoring, counseling, sports, fitness, robotics, nutrition and many more courses over 100 children receive a healthy meal each day that they participate at the center.Pandemic Learning Cells that served 600 children during Covid, were scaled back but some remain to support 75-100 extremely vulnerable children. The Entrepreneurial Center supported the startup or growth of 93 micro-businesses with 30 families graduating from the business training course. The Community Center had over 2,600 weekly participants in 2022.