Oregon Volunteers Build a Village and Bring Hope to the Destitute of Nicaragua
"I saw Eliana and that look of hopelessness on her face , I just knew. God said, 'This is why you're here....'"
(Managua, Nicaragua)?"Home" for many of the families in Managua, Nicaragua is not a house with trees and a car in the yard?it's the city garbage dump known as "La Chureca." Recently however, a large group of volunteers from Southlake Church in West Linn, Oregon, together with Forward Edge International in Vancouver, Wa., endeavored to change that dreary picture of existence.
FOX 12 reports that the Oregon volunteers, under the direction of Forward Edge, are adding to an existing school in the midst of the dump, building an entire village for the destitute and desperate people living there. (Photo: KPTV FOX 12)
One of the volunteers, Gary Eckelman, an architect from Portland, Oregon, saw the horror of life-at-the-dump, in the face of a teenage girl, when he arrived. "When I got off the plane and we went to La Chureca, we saw a girl named Eliana who I've heard stories about," Eckelman told FOX 12. "She's been sexually abused and mistreated, and she's 15. I saw Eliana and that look of hopelessness on her face, I just knew. God said, 'This is why you're here. This is why you have to do this project.'"
The design for the village includes individual homes, and even recreational facilities for the many children currently living at the dump. Some of the volunteers have been led to do much more, however, as one family has decided to move to Nicaragua to adopt 2 of the children from La Chureca.
For more on this moving story, or to get involved in helping to build this village, follow the link provided.
