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Date Build: Saturday 05th - Sunday 06th, April 2025
FAMILY INFORMATION
MOTHER: Esmeralda
Age: 23 years old
FATHER: Miguel
Age: 31 years old
Job: Security Guard
Salary weekly: $185 US
CHILDREN:
Angel - 2 years old
LETTER FROM THE FAMILY:
We are the Segura Ramos family, and we would like to share our story with you. Before we owned our land, we rented a house. The house had no bathroom and no electricity, but the landlord wanted to increase the rent. One day, someone told us that we could buy a piece of land in installments. We struggled to raise the money for the deposit. As soon as we got the land, we moved in. My wife, our eight-month-old baby, and I started our new life in a small wooden room without a roof. To protect us from the sun, my husband brought a piece of plastic from his workplace. We slept on a mattress on the floor, always afraid that a poisonous animal would bite our baby or us. The damp soil attracted many scorpions, tarantulas and snakes. One day, while shaking out our clothes, a scorpion stung my finger, and on another occasion my wife was stung on the foot. We had no electricity and slept in total darkness, surrounded by dangerous animals. We asked a neighbor to share the electricity, explaining that we had a baby and feared for its safety. The nights were difficult, especially when there were strong winds. From the floor, we watched in fear as our small room shook, and the plastic roof flapped noisily, afraid the wind would tear it apart. At the time, I was working in a painting company called "Pintura Profesional de Jando". My wife and son spent their days in the heat because our plastic roof made the small room unbearably hot. One day I saw some walls for sale and negotiated to buy them in installments. With the first payment of 1,000 pesos, I took them to our land and installed wooden beams to reinforce the structure. Although we still had no roof, we slept under a tarp. When the rainy season arrived, I tried to put a protective sheet on the roof. A strong gust of wind ripped off part of the roof. I shouted desperately for my wife to grab our baby, who was sleeping on the mattress. We huddled against the door, holding each other and praying for God to protect us. Then we went to our neighbor's house for help, feeling that the wind was going to sweep us away. When the storm passed, everything was soaked: our clothes, shoes and food. Learning from the experience, we moved back to the first small room we had built, which held up better. But water still leaked in, and we had to put out buckets to catch it. The floor stayed wet, and our mattress was soaked. My baby was always sick with coughs and colds, as was my wife. In my job as a painter's assistant, we didn't get paid on rainy days. Sometimes I went weeks without an income and had to buy food on credit from a local shop, repaying my debt when I received my pay check. Later, I found a new job as a security guard. Since then, I have never missed a day of work, no matter what the weather or how sick I feel. God knows how many times I have felt unwell and still gone to work. He understands our struggles. Even now, when it rains, water leaks through the roof, and we have to put out buckets to collect it. The wind makes the whole structure creak and shake, and we fear it will collapse again. We've cemented the floor to keep out scorpions, and although we haven't seen any lately, we recently found a snake that had got in through a hole in the floor. There are lots of rats in our room, digging holes in the dirt. Sincerely, Segura Ramos family