Status of Construction in Oaxaca

    Difficulties obtaining building permits at the mission in Oaxaca have put us in a complicated position with construction. Since the day construction began in Oaxaca, we have been planning to build a primary and secondary school here. The school is being planned for our children and will also be open to anyone in need from the surrounding communities. But in the past few years, we have run into difficulties in the process of gaining permits for buildings such as the school.

    As we have made efforts to understand the problem and how to continue, we have had to stop most of our existing construction efforts. This permitting process has taken nearly a year so far. A lawyer has joined the volunteers here and is working to help our progress in obtaining the required permits. Though we don't have permits yet for building large-scale projects like the school, we are able to maintain our existing buildings and work on smaller construction efforts. In the past few months, these efforts have included a fence between the road and the playground, furniture, renovations of the common rooms for the children's homes and improvements to our main buildings.

The construction team in Oaxaca.

One of our construction workers pauses while making a stone wall.

    We have enough small projects for our construction team to continue working while we wait for the required permissions. However, because we lack larger projects, giving for construction in Oaxaca has significantly decreased. In order to continue working in this area we wanted our supporters to be aware of these important needs.

    Below are links to three smaller construction projects that we can do now that are dedicated to improving the lives at the mission in Oaxaca. These projects include constructing new durable chairs for our dining hall, a wall on our perimeter to help us during the upcoming flood season, and several cement projects such as sidewalks, curbs, a fire pit, a volleyball court, and a pig-pen.

We hope that you'll see as much worth in these projects as the grander projects we have in mind for the future.

PROJECT: Oaxaca Cement Work
PROJECT: Oaxaca Dining Hall Chairs
PROJECT: Oaxaca Perimeter Wall