Los Chiles Housing Relief Project Background

I went down to Los Chiles, Costa Rica in February 2008 on a mission trip with a group from Kent Island United Methodist Church, Kent Island, MD. We were putting the finishing touches on a church the Methodist mission had been working on for a few years in Los Chiles. By the end of the trip, we had set up a way to directly fund housing relief projects for the people of Los Chiles. The community there will build each other's houses and the church will oversee the projects so all money raised goes to buy construction materials. You can build a small house with four walls, a zinc roof, a concrete floor, and a water well for about $1200 USD.

Los Chiles is in the northern lowlands of Alajuela Province, Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan frontier. The Methodist mission there serves mostly poor Nicaraguan immigrants living near the border. In fact, many of the men in the community fought on either side of the Contra/Sandanista conflict. The CIA launched operations into Nicaragua from Los Chiles back when it was a borderland war zone.

Before we left Costa Rica the community identified several housing relief projects and got detailed estimates for construction materials needed to complete them. The projects include roofs, concrete floors, water wells and walls. For the most part, the projects include repairing existing structures. A house can be rebuilt from the floor up for about $1200 USD. A fund was set up through Kent Island UMC so that any money raised in the US can be sent directly to the church on the frontier specifically for housing relief. The business end of contributions is handled by the Kent Island UMC.

The Krewe of DOOM would like to raise enough money to fund several projects. We have divided the projects into separate parts (floor, roof, walls, wells) and are accepting donations to pay for materials needed to complete them.