As of July 2008, due to inflation, the cost of rebuilding one hut has drastically increased to about USD $1500.
Extreme Hut Makeover Trip Report
October 2007
History:
In May 2007, we recognized that a few of our children under Extend Your Heart educational sponsorship program have become homeless because the huts they were living in have collapsed. These huts consist of dried leaves weaved together for walls & roofs and pounded dirt for floors. We started a pilot project “Extreme Hut Makeover” (EHM) to help these families rebuild their homes so the children and their families would have a safe and dry place to live.
Goal, Accomplishments, and Future Plans:
Our goal was to rebuild five huts which were divided into two phases. The first phase consisted of rebuilding two huts which were finished in October 2007. The second phase of the rebuilding of three other huts will resume after February 7, 2008 which is Tet (Vietnamese New Year).
The Holiday Season and the upcoming Tet have driven up the material costs. Originally, we planned a standard home to consist of the following with an estimated cost of $600USD:
Dimension: 13ft x 23ft
- The front wall built from bricks, the other 3 walls will be made out of weaved dried leaves.
- Cement floor (the old floor is pounded dirt)
- Galvanized steel roof
- 1 bathroom – the old huts didn’t have bathrooms.
Before we started the rebuilding process, the families had expressed that they can forego the bathrooms and instead they wished to have all four walls be built out of bricks for the same cost. We wanted to give each family four brick walls and a bathroom; however, with our current resources each family will choose what is best for them. From here on, we plan to increase the budget for each home to $700 which will cover the cost for a bathroom and four brick walls.
We are very happy to report that the first two families moved into their new homes in October 2007. Tuyet, Franco and I visited and inspected the two homes in November. Seeing the happy families and their visible gratitude brought so much joy to our hearts. Both families have expressed that if they work and save their entire life, they would not be able to afford to build a home like what were given to them.
We are very excited to announce the future plan for EHM project. We will continue to expand this project to cover all rural and poor areas in
Acknowledgement and Gratitude:
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters for making the Extreme Hut Makeover Project a huge success. We saw the absolute need and wished to rebuild these huts but it is with your generous financial support that we were able to make our wish and the wishes of the poor families become a reality. Mere words are not enough to express the gratitude in our hearts and the hearts of these families. Thank you very much.
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Affiliated Engineers, Inc. (Bill Vernon)
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Warren Jones Franco Marinaro Sandy Zirulnik (Online Consulting Engineers)
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“A picture is worth a thousand words”
Our first family to receive the grant to rebuild the hut is a single mother (Mai Phan) with one child (Mai-Hoa Thi Phan). Mai has constant migraine headaches which has caused deafness in one ear and is gradually developing hearing loss on her good ear. With the medical condition like that, Mai is unable hold a constant job. Her job is selling lottery tickets around town. Their hut completely collapsed earlier in the year. Not having money to rebuild, Mai and her daughter went to live with her mother who also houses Mai’s brother’s family.
Mai & her daughter Mai-Hoa are standing in the middle of where their hut used to be.
Mai-Hoa & mother standing by their almost completed home.
Mai is the happy new owner of this beautiful home.
Mai lives very far from the main road. Mopeds could only take us to a point; we walked the rest of the way on 2-ft wide mud embankments. The hut was built during the rainy season so the building material were transported by little row boats via this canal.
Our second family to receive a grant to rebuild is Ngoc-Mai Thi Nguyen. Ngoc-Mai is in the 2nd grade. In order to support their family Ngoc-Mai’s parents had to leave town to find work in another province. They come home once a year to visit. Ngoc-Mai and her little brother are currently under the care of their grandmother. Ngoc-Mai’s hut collapsed earlier in the year. Her grandmother’s hut was not in much better shape. We decided to rebuild her grandmother’s hut so that the grandmother and children have a safe place to live.
Ngoc-Mai’s hut collapsed earlier in the year.
Interior views of Ngoc-Mai’s grandmother’s hut.
Ngoc-Mai’s new home
Exterior side view
Future huts to be rebuilt in 2008 include the remaining three huts:
Thiet Thi Vo family: Thiet’s father has a deformity in the right leg due to polio. Both of her parents farm in the little piece of land in front of their hut; the yield is hardly enough to feed this family of 8. The hut was issued by the government in 1996. The structure has rotted and can collapse anytime but the family can not afford to fix it. Currently, the entire family resorted to living and sleeping in the kitchen area. The roof is spotted with holes. When it rains the mother gathers all the children under a nylon tarp. Thiet’s two older sisters did well in school but their father had to take them out of school because he couldn’t afford the cost.
Thiet is standing, 2nd from left.
Thiet’s kitchen
Ngoc Thi Tran family:
Ngoc is in the 4th grade. She lives with her two younger siblings, father, and grandmother. Ngoc’s father has muscular atrophy in the legs and is slowly getting worse. He works as a hired hand in the field and sells lottery tickets. They are currently living in a small government issued hut. The government is taking back their hut to expand the road without a replacement program. The locals know very well how desperate this family is and are pleading with the government to find them a small piece of land so a home can be built for them.
Ngoc with her two younger sisters & grandma.
Ngoc with father & sister.
Nguyen Tan Do family:
Nguyen is handicapped in one eye but that hasn’t deterred him from coming to school every single day. His mother works as a day laborer to support Nguyen and older brother. They don’t have a home and currently live with his aunt’s family in his aunt’s hut.
Nguyen (middle) with his mom & brother in front of his aunt’s hut.
Tran family:
The Tran family has 3 children. The oldest son is 14 but doesn’t know what a classroom is like because his parents cannot afford for him to go to school. The hut they are living in is tiny & substandard.
Trang’s family:
Trang’s father passed away and she lives with her mother in a very torn hut. It is made out of a material called “dem” in Vietnamese which is even cheaper than the dried leaves. Trang’s grandfather can only afford to buy them a tarp to cover over the bed so the rain will not get them wet them during rainy nights. Trang’s mother works as day laborer.
Little Trang
Big holes in the ceiling
The plastic tarp over Trang & her mother’s bed.
More holes in the walls.
