By Emily Roisman and Eleven "LB" Cook | President and Director of Operations
Carmen, 58, has lived in the same house for over 25 years with her daughter, who suffers from asthma. When they heard that a hurricane was coming, Carmen and her daughter sought shelter in a cement room at the back of their house. From that room they heard the zinc panels on the roof bursting, and then water began to pour into the house. First 3 of the 4 turnbuckles on the roof broke, and then all the bolts came loose. Although Carmen was able to get help from another nonprofit organization, the repairs did not last. The roof began to deteriorate, the zinc was corroded and the strength of the roof was compromised. The leaking water led to mold growth, which is especially hazardous to someone with asthma. Fortunately, PRoTechos was able to lend a hand.
Carmen and her daughter always greeted the PRoTechos team with smiles, snacks and even coffee. They were overwhelmed with gratitude for their new roof and dry home. We hope to be able to help many other homeowners like Carmen, as at PRoTechos, we believe that everyone deserves safe and secure housing, including a roof that will not blow away in the next hurricane.
Since our last update, thanks to additional funding from grants, PRoTechos was able to hire additional staff to increase the pace of our work. We now have 17 trainees, 3 foremen, 2 carpentry assistants and 2 carpentry instructors/project coordinators, which has allowed us to build 17 more strong roofs and provided safe and secure housing (and a roof that does not leak!) to 17 more families like Carmen’s, and to train 22 more people in basic carpentry. We have also learned new ways to build even stronger roofs, although this does require additional materials that increase the total cost of building each roof. Inflationhas been a particularly difficult challenge for us - in the last year we have seen an unprecedented increase in the cost of materials and labor. We can no longer build one roof and train one person for $5,000. When we began this project, we could build a roof for between $3,000 and $3500, and now that cost has ballooned to $7,000. Training one trainee now costs $2500.
In April our current apprentices will graduate and we will begin to train our next class of 12. We are meticulously and compassionately executing our mission every day: 1 roof, 1 trainee at a time.
Our team is working tirelessly to develop new partnerships and funding opportunities but we cannot continue without your help. Every dollar counts and we are putting your donations directly to work. Please help to ensure that we can help more families like Carmen’s by donating today and sharing our story with your friends and family. Together we can continue to work alongside families to build capacity through our training program. Together we can continue to insure safe and dry homes one roof and one family at a time. Thank you now and always for your support.
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By LB Cook | Director of Operations
By LB Cook | Director of Operations
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