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Esperanza International
San Diego Volunteer Organizations
In 1984, three men from St James Mission Circle service group, Robert Morris, Deacon Al Graff, Fr. John Howard envisioned non-profit, non-sectarian organizations whose mission would be to empower the poor to help themselves by bridging existing needs with available resources. The following year Esperanza International was incorporated as a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit organization. From the very beginning and continuing to the present, the primary focus and activity has been to support and assist in home building for poor families in communities located around Tijuana, Mexico. As the building activity grew, it became apparent that an organization based in Tijuana was needed to direct the house building work of Esperanza International.
In 1990, Fundacion Esperanza de Mexico (FEM) with a Mexican Board of Directors was founded for this purpose. A breakthrough occurred in 1992 when a cost effective, safe and volunteer friendlily house building system, Hainer block, was engineered for the building projects. These concert blocks are molded on the Posada Esperanza site by volunteers and transported to the building site. A secure place was needed where volunteers could stay so in 1998, land was purchased for the construction of Posada Esperanza. It opened to volunteers in 1999. From 570 volunteers in 1999, the number has steadily grown to over 1,600 in recent years. These recent volunteers have contributed nearly 7,000 days working in communities. There is no easy way to measure the gratitude of those families that at last see a hope made real or the satisfaction felt by the volunteers. You need to be there.