The state of housing (if you can even call it that) in Baseco is just diabolical. It is a complete disgrace to humankind that people have to live in the conditions of most of these homes.
Through the generous donations raised, we were able to commit to what we thought would be two house renovation projects: Carmelita's house and Julie's house. But as you will see from the video below, the houses are basically write-offs and there is nothing to salvage. Hence the two house renovations are now effectively total re-builds.
At a cost of 20,000 pesos each, we were able to channel 40,000 pesos (or the equivalent of just over AU$1,000) into rebuilding Carmelita's and Julie's homes. You will see in the video that we were able to buy blocks and timber so that the houses will be re-built in much safer and better condition.
When we arrived at the site, it was immediately obvious that Johan and I would not be able to help in any way with the re-build. There was literally no room to move as you will see in the video that Henny's brother took. It would have been extremely unsafe and reckless of us to be there when there were already so many workers. We would have just been in the way.
I found the living conditions of these homes to be truly abhorrent and immensely concerning; and I feel a sense of helplessness because we can only help two families now. I really hope that we can help more families in the future.
Carmelita's House
Here are photos of Carmelita's house being re-built. Her husband is a construcion labourer so he was happy to do a lot of the work himself - he just couldn't have afforded all the materials if it wasn't for the donations. Carmelita's husband was so grateful for the help and apologised for not being able to buy us soft drinks to thank us.
What I still don't quite understand is how they can re-build without first clearing the site. They demolished the home but then left all the rubble there in the middle as Carmelita's husband started to build the blockwork on the perimeter. When I asked where they slept after that first day of demolition, Pastor Allan pointed to the middle of the rubble. I was aghast as I just cannot see how one could sit, let alone sleep on top of a pile of termite-infested rubble. The resilience of the Baseco people is truly inspirational as well as heartbreaking at the same time.
Julie's House
We went to see Julie's current house - which consists primarily of precariously leaning sticks being held together by bits of ropes. Julie's wife passed away not long ago and he now has to raise 5 kids. When we arrived, we received the sad news that Julie is extremely ill. It is suspected that he may have had Tuberculosis for a while and that quite likely his children also have it. Unfortunately, Julie has refused to be taken to the hospital and when we visited the house (as shown in the photos below), he was hardly conscious in "bed".
At this stage, given his condition, we are not quite sure how to re-build his house as he wouldn't be able to live there while the house is being demolished and built. The first priority now is to get the family medical treatment. The funds for the house has been raised and earmarked for this family and it will be there when the time is right to do the build.
We will upload the photos of the "finished" homes once completed.
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