Where do you go when your home is washed away?

When Hurricane Eta slammed into Honduras as a Category 4 storm in November 2020, it centered on the area around San Pedro Sula. Residents of Chamelecón (population 50,000) who live on the river took the hardest hit. The Red Cross reported 2,000 families became homeless in that community.

Salem’s Mission team met some of these people on their logistics trip last February. They are proud and productive and ready to work! A rebuilding project philosophy and structure is being implemented similar to Habitat for Humanity. Community leaders (called patronados) and pastors prioritize the need and supervise the construction of the houses  needing to be replaced. The residents are very involved in building their home, as well as helping their neighbors. A small 20’x20’ cinderblock home requires about $3,000 in materials.

Project Structure

Three families whose houses were destroyed were designated to start the project. Their three houses were under construction at the same time, stage-by-stage: footings, foundation, walls, roof, doors and windows were constructed at once for each house. The families elected to help each other reach the end of one stage before any of them moved to the next stage. They hired local Honduran contractors to help with some of the skilled labor.

The First Three Families