Local ladies prep for Mexican build

Four Tauranga women are among an all-girl group heading to Mexico next month to build a house for a poverty-stricken single mother and her three children.

The trip is run through charity Breakfree Expeditions, fronted by Tauranga woman Diana Judge, who met with the four women this week to hand over their all-important and ever-feminine pink tool belts.


Diana Judge, Karen Roberts, Lesley Hart and Elizabeth sporting their pink tool belts they will use during the trip.

'The ladies are all excited,” says Diana. 'They look great in their tool belts.”

The women, all aged between 40 and 60 years old, have different reasons for going, with some calling it their intrepid journey and others ticking items off their bucket lists.

The trip kicks off on September 1 and will see the women spend three days building a two bedroom home for the 35-year-old single mother and her children, aged 15, 13 and four years old.

Diana says this family currently survives on US$24 a week – significantly below the global poverty line.

The house will cost US$6500 to build and is then fitted with a further US$1000 worth of furniture.

Diana says they try putting as much money back into the local community as possible during the build. All the materials are purchased locally and Mexican foreman are hired to check the trade work.

The family also helps out as much as they can. 'They're going to be as nervous as anything.”

Diana has recently returned from another excursion in Cambodia where she helped another team build eight houses in two days for local families.

Money was raised for the trip by holding a massive $2 clothing sale in Mount Maunganui in June.

'Cambodia went really well,” says Diana. The team also provided $4000 of free dental work to locals, she says. 'It was really, really good.”

Another Girls' Big Week Out trip will be held next year, for more information visit www.breakfreeexpeditions.com

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3 comments

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME

Posted on 19-08-2012 17:31 | By Pozzum

Great idea and good holiday but doesn't charity begin at home? Why don't they put their efforts/energies into rebuilding for our desolate homeless in Christchurch!


Charity at home and away

Posted on 20-08-2012 09:14 | By Open mind

To "Charity begins at home" - again the same assumption at these people are only giving to the needy overseas. I know many of the people who have participated in these trips, and they have actually been down in ChCh helping with the cleanup and the rebuild, (more than once even). This isn't the only charity work they volunteer for. Good on them, and thanks to them all.


Building Better Lives Together

Posted on 20-08-2012 14:21 | By Breakfree

Thanks for your comments Pozzum and Open Mind. Our past trip volunteers have been very active in the Christchurch rebuild and Break Free Expeditions was asked to submit our Mexico house plans last year as they only take 2 days to build and provide great shelter at a very cheap price! One thing to bear in mind in NZ is the high level of regulation/bureaucracy around building - we just aren't able to do what we can do overseas in NZ. FYI after the earthquake we offered our skills and expertise and were advised that we weren't needed. We are so fortunate in NZ to have EQC, insurance companies, WINZ, govt support etc. Although they aren't always perfect - at least there is some assistance there and something is happening to help rebuild Christchurch. The families that our teams are building for are living below the global poverty line on less than 86 cents per day in leaky shacks in a slum with no government safety net to help them out. I figure that helping them is a great thing to do - put it this way, if I was living on 86 cents per day I would be thrilled someone was coming to build me a home :-)


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