Ceilings of Hope Networking

In this summer vacations I had the opportunity to know and visit a little about the project Techos de Esperanza  (Ceilings of Hope) that is carried on by the Panama government at urban and rural communities. The idea is simple, give decent housing to families that have a piece of land where to place it.

The interesting part about this project, and what catch my eye is the networking type you could do, in this communities they have to give support to each other so the project function. Imagine that one day you receive the offer for building your own house, the only thing you are asked for is to have papers of your own land, and that such place has some basic conditions to build on, like having a level ground beneath or that the place is not in a risk zone.

Once you have your part done, then you receive the visit of the government deputy and the building company inspector (this time *Atlantic Projects, S.A. invited me to review the project), once every thing is in order, then if both sides authorize the material is sent to the zone and the crew of builders are selected to build the house. In 15 days the place is in black work and in one month the house could be delivered to the family.

Another interesting side business is the economic impact that this project bring to the communities where the building is done. Since its expected that the landlord brings the basic features, once a group of people from the community get to know about the project, they usually go for job hunting to make themselves useful and productive by building the houses. This job may last form more than one year in the same region. Furthermore their experience gets better, and they have jobs for considerable time periods.

Once the region is selected for the house building, there is a rising demand on side services like road use, transportation and feeding, this becomes an indirect way to improve the economy of the place.

During my visit I get to know Doralis Reina, who works at the Salamanca town hall, and she became our guide and contact with the members of the community. Doralis identify and get to know pretty well all the places and families that have asked for the government support. She told me that one important part of her job was to help the people to hand in correctly the paperwork so they could be considered for the support.

The Ceilings of Hope project, at the beginning, was planned to help 20 thousand Panamanian families, but it has had that much success that the government is now thinking in allocate more economic resources so the number could be raised to 40 thousand houses. The project now is thought to reach families that are in further rural communities and also for families that have a member with some impairment.

What type of social work you think your government could do in support of the community? Tell us about it.

*Atlantic Projects, S.A.

Dirección: Plaza Altos de Panamá, local 10, primer piso, Panamá

Contacto: Juan Antonio Belden

Teléfono: 507-3922213

Fax: 507-3922216