What then shall we do?

With all the disasters in the world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed—to feel that there are too many people to help. Here at MicroAid, as you know, our philosophy is that just because we can’t help everyone, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help someone. I hope you know that, through your donations, you are building houses for disaster survivors right now!

I want to introduce you to the families we are helping at this very moment:

In Nepal, we are repairing and retrofitting the home of the Kachhyapati family, whose house was severely damaged in the 2015 earthquake. Since then, they have been living in the house, which at any moment (or another quake) could come crashing down on them—they haven’t even been able to afford to replace the glass in the windows. This wonderful family is made up of the dad and the mom, four daughters, a son-in-law, and one granddaughter. MicroAid will make their house safe for them, and the many generations to follow.

In Paraguay, the Figueredo family has been living in a flood-plane barrio of Asuncion all their lives. Every rainy season, the Rio Paraguay rises and engulfs the area forcing the family to relocate to shanty-towns in the city for months at a time. When the water recedes, they return to their soggy shack to begin again. This cycle is disruptive to work, eduction, and health. And since the family does not actually own the property (all the poor people in the flood plane are squatters on government land) they could be thrown off at any moment. MicroAid has bought a lot on the outskirts of Asuncion (near where the mom has a full-time job as a cleaning-person at an office) and is building them a home, which will remain high and dry all year long, and provide a secure and legal place to raise a young daughter and son.

Thanks to your support, MicroAid is able to change people’s lives forever. With a safe and comfortable place to live, these families can go about the other necessities of life: work, school, health, etc.

MicroAid has had projects running back-to-back in Nepal since 2016, and this will be our first project in Paraguay. In the future, we plan to rebuild houses for earthquake survivors in Indonesia, and we continue to assess whether we can help survivors of the 2017 hurricanes in the Caribbean.

Thank you for being part of our direct humanitarian effort.

I hope you and your family are healthy, happy, and secure.

Wishing you peace and peace of mind,

Jon Ross