MAPLEWOOD, NJ — On her 10th build in Guatemala last month with Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village Program, Barbara McCarthy brought six young adults from the Our Lady of Sorrows community with her to work on a home for a needy family.
Together with Wendy Lamotta, director of Round 2 Resources, there were eight volunteers who spent a week in Usumatlan, Zacapa. When they arrived there was only the foundation built, but after five days of energetic building they were already cutting in for the roof. This tremendous progress was made possible by a grant from Benchmark Construction, with which the six young adults only had to pay for their flights. This is the second year Benchmark Construction has contributed toward a Global Village build.
Traveling with McCarthy and Lamotta were OLS School Class of 2007 graduate Conor McCarthy, OLS School Class of 2008 graduate Nicholas Rego, OLS School Class of 2009 graduates Shane McCarthy and Emily Hartnett, Seton Hall University Class of 2016 graduate Stephanie Vargas, and Danielle Piontkowski, a senior at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
While there, the group also visited the local elementary school, Escuela Oficial Urbana Mixta Usumatlan, which currently has 307 students in a school built for 150. The school is in disrepair and overcrowded. In 2016 Barbara McCarthy founded Zacapa School Aid Inc., a nonprofit that raises funds to help schools like this. She hopes to take another group back to Zacapa at the end of December to work on painting and repairing the school while the children are on winter break.
New volunteers are always welcome. Contact zacapaschoolaid@gmail.com for more information.
Photos Courtesy of Barbara McCarthy
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