Featured on Social Conscience’s www

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to pass along a link to Social Conscience’s website, where we’ve got a feature from our CWAC/ Young Life Spring Break trip.

http://web.mac.com/james.milligan/Social_Conscience/Mexico.html

James @ Social Conscience partnered with us to supply our team with fair trade soccer balls…lots of them! It was a blast giving them away. Read up on it when you get a chance!

cheers,

james

Some quick updates…

Just updated our goals page to let you know what we’re up to.

What’s next? Good question…you should expect some excerpts  & pics from some of our team members in the next while – a great chance to read up on our 09 trip from different perspectives…

On the radar -

• We’re aiming to hit (or surpass) our goals for soccer balls and backpacks for the year.
• chill CWAC tees – BOGO (buy one give one) – hoping to pursue this cool idea… more to come on that one (of course, we’re jonesin’ for organic, sweatshop free tees) !

Just an update on the fly – we’ll do our best to keep you updated on the blog, and on facebook. If you haven’t already, please join our facebook group – the link’s on the side…

cheers, and thanks for your support!

james

back on the ground…

prayer, originally uploaded by James Matthew.

{photo caption: it is an important tradition that we pray with our team and family around the foundation of their new house before we begin building. Everything stops, while we pray a blessing on the family, on our work, and on what will be their new home}

We’re home from the amazing TJ 09 drop and house build.

Wow.

This trip was mindblowing to say the least – here’s the short:

1 house build for the Maqueda family – a beautiful family – we got to spend 3 fantastic days with them… Gustavo, their middle son (the Maquedas have 7 children), is our sponsor child. We got to work, play, and even cook alongside these beautiful people.

1 Factory RESCUE – probably the most important thing we did on this trip. Thanks to some of my students from last trip, we were able to offer Ana, 14, a chance to get out of factory work, child labor, and go back to school. This was life changing! We’re so happy she said yes to rescue, and we’re in the midst of setting up her school registration…

52 Fair Trade Soccer Balls – 20 of which were given to a school for children who can’t afford normal school.

76 School Bags - hand delivered to kids who need ‘em.

40 food packs – handed out @ the river (aka ‘No Esperenza’ = no hope) – an illegal squat that is surrounded by factories. We were able to assemble 40 bags, with rice, beans, and the bags for families with children included vitamin enriched milk.

Countless other stories. We’ll try to get some up asap.
Stay tuned…

-james

TJ 09 – Two days away…

Just wanted to update and let you all know that on Saturday afternoon we’ll be pulling into Tijuana in style – 16 fantastic teens, 4 crazy leaders, 52 fair trade soccer balls (a big thanks to James @ social conscience for setting us up with such a great deal!) and 75 school bags to give away to children down there….oh yeah, and one house to build.We’re stoked to see our sponsor child, Gustavo, again, and build a house for him and his family…this is a once in a lifetime thing!!

Thank you so much for your support. Please keep us in your prayers if you are the prayin’ kind of person. It is always an intense trip.

Also, please pray for Ana – we are going to see if she is willing to leave her life of factory work to return to school and get an education. If she is willing, we are going to help her out – some kids from my school (who were on the 08 trip) decided to raise money to help support putting her into a private school after hearing her story last year. I met Ana two years ago, when the team I was helping lead stuccoed her family’s house. Ana wrote the test at the end of gr.7, and didn’t get a high enough grade. Now she works in a sewing factory for 10 hours a day, and rides a bus for about 3 hours to and from work. She probably makes about 10 dollars a day, if she’s lucky. Ana is about 14 or 15.

This is huge, perhaps the most important part of our trip, but Ana and her folks need to agree with the idea before we can act. If they say yes to this rescue, then perhaps we can help break the cycle of poverty in her family by helping provide Ana with an education that could get her a decent job.

I’ll update the blog when we hit the ground again in Canada. Here’s hoping for an amazing trip of spreading hope in practical ways…

cheers,

james

The Countdown is on…

Just wanted to update as we’re drawing nearer to our Spring Break Trip/drop.

Only 3 more weeks!

As we’re getting closer, we’re trying to tie up loose ends, which means I just got to order SEVENTY FIVE swag school bags to hand deliver in Tijuana!!

A massive THANKS to all of you who’ve helped us beat our goal of having a minimum of 50 bags to take with us!

Another big THANKS to the great folks at Mountain Equipment Co-op for footing the bill for our shipping fees!!

Next stop – ordering those fair trade soccer balls!!

House build Spring Break 09 is a GO!

Just a quick update – to say that it looks like we’ve covered the cost of one house build for Spring Break ‘09!!

I sent in the last $25 this afternoon, and, if our numbers are right, that’s it for the $6500!!

Fantastic!! I’m so stoked for the CWAC/Young Life ‘09 Spring Break trip!

If you are wanting to support us, have no fear! We still have a minimum of 50 fair trade soccer balls and 50 school bags to fundraise for…please help us share hope!

A huge thank you to all of you who’ve supported this house build fund- we couldn’t have done it without you!!

cheers,

james

Photo updates…

I’m slowly starting to get some photos online from our 08 trip in Tijuana.
check them out by clicking on the photos link on the right of this page, or you can click here .

Merry Christmas, everyone!

James

house {re}build

hillside, terrazas, originally uploaded by James Matthew.

I just read this afternoon that there was a fire in Terazzas, Tijuana, where our team worked last year. Ten houses were destroyed.

Our team spent a week last year working in this area, stuccoing 2.5 houses and painting. We got to know and work with some of the families, and I got to visit some of them with a few students in September, dropping off school bags, soccer balls and some small gifts.

We know people in this community, and, while I received word that friends like Ana and Heime are safe, we still feel ties to the people there.

I’m happy to say that about half an hour ago, I got the nod – one of the houses we will be building on spring break will be rebuilding for some of the fire victims.

Our spring break goals just got a little bit more important in my head…

in hope,

james

Giving made easier…

Things are amping up for our Spring Break trip to Tijuana – we currently have a team of 20 students and Young Life leaders, and are working on various fundraisers for our house builds. Next week, we’re hoping for a packed living room for a rockin’ house concert featuring Conor Searl and Colin McTaggart – slick. We’re also finalizing our TJ o9 team t-shirts (on organic sweatshop free shirts, of course).

We’ve also made it easier to give – You can now send funds to Childcare Worldwide for backpacks and fair trade soccer balls, as well as for our house builds. They’ll issue tax receipts for any donations over 20 dollars. Slick!

Click on the ‘give!‘ link at the top of the page to read more about helping us spread hope!

cheers,

james

Notes from the Ground: Sept. 23rd. Tijuana

the view, originally uploaded by James Matthew.

An excerpt from my notebook-

___________________________

Sept. 23.o8

We ended up working on 4 different houses scattered across the hillside today – putting tarpaper and chicken wire up – cramped working conditions, and very rough living…

Last winter a mudslide left a few feet of mud and debris in some of the houses, one house up the hill has no floor (and probably that is the norm here), just a tar paper covering. The house next door to it has a tarp ‘roof’ that leaks whenever it rains. The other house has tarantulas coming through holes in the walls – they have young children…

It is very hard to look people in the eyes as they try to communicate their needs (after trying to translate in your head) and give them an answer that is worthy…

_______________________________________

Our team worked on the side of a hill that appeared like something out of the Middle East – It was rocky, sandy, and windblown. Some of our team had to lug bags of cement, wood, and tools up the hill in the hot TJ sun. The view was an amazing reminder that the living conditions here are not unique…at one point, I had to walk down the hill with a local lady to talk with Carley about trying to get her tarp roof replaced with something a little more stable (her house is the one on ’stilts’ shown below, and is highest up on the hillside). It was difficult to face this lady and tell her there wasn’t much I could do. Carley’s response was graceful but practical – we’ve already committed ourselves to help certain families on this hill, and we only have so much to go around, but we do come back, and we will do what we can.- This is definitely a hard lesson to learn…

-james

hillside, originally uploaded by James Matthew.