Sustainable Housing Innovation with Project Mexico

For the past few months, I have been working with Project Mexico. Project Mexico builds secure, safe and weather-tight homes for some of the most impoverished families in northern Mexico. These houses are built strictly by volunteer labor, and provide families economic security and hope for a brighter future. Specifically, I have been working with some individuals at Project Mexico to increase community and volunteer engagement. This plays into sourcing local materials and assistance for construction. I have also gotten the privilege of designing some really interesting advancements. Some of these include better insulation, better air circulation, and some other ideas which include gardens and solar water heaters. Several new builds are now gathering materials locally, and designing houses with updated insulation and circulation.
For me, Project Mexico is a super important organization for me to be a part of. I first volunteered at Project Mexico a few years back. In the past, this was just a way for me to volunteer and help those in need. Volunteers do not need a construction or technical background to participate. I fell in love with the families that I met and the handful of volunteers who were giving up so much time to be there. I knew I wanted to go back one day and really create a difference. Now, because of my background in engineering, I am seeing new areas for these projects to be even better. It is super amazing to be able to give back and share what I have learned in my studies.
I truly believe that my project can measure sustainability in a handful of different ways. Sustainability is best measured as its community impact and engagement. For me, it is super interesting to see neighbors, volunteers, and the family itself take part in the building of the house. Whether this is the actual building, painting, or making of concrete, it is awesome to see such a high level of community advancement. This allows us to be a 100% volunteering organization, and incorporate the community. From a more technical standpoint, these builds (in the past) were not always locally sourced. By now locally sourcing these materials, we can save costs and improve the economic flow of the area. This allows everyone to have a part in the building process, and helps keep local jobs around. From an environmental standpoint, this decreases the carbon footprint. Updated insulation, better air flow, and other technical designs are not measured quantitatively, but rather from a quantitative view. In the past, it would be uncomfortable for these individuals to live in a house that is either super cold or super warm. With no electricity or gas, insulation and air flow is crucial. This is done by adding standing walls, windows, and gaps in the walls for air to travel.
As previously stated, my project helped reach a handful of individuals. From a community standpoint, a standard was set to incorporate the community in these builds. Everyone is welcome to help out, and families and community members are usually enthusiastic and want to help out. There is no reason that we shouldn’t allow members to help out. This is something that has become increasingly popular, which is amazing. In my own community, I have pitched this project to a ton of young adults. At first, I was the only one that went from my church. Now, there are annual groups that go from my church. Because of the fact that these volunteers are so flexible and willing to help, it would be super easy for me to introduce my ideas to the project manager. It was interesting because he saw and heard of the same ideas from past builds. He thought that there definitely needed to be some changes as well. There was room for qualitative and quantitative changes. I definitely appreciate his flexibility and trust in these new changes. As you may hear later on, I refer to some individuals as my team. When I talk about a team, I am referring to volunteers as well as the project manager. However, I worked on this project and designs individually, but used fellow volunteers to construct the design.
I am incredibly honored to be able to use my education and background in engineering, and be able to use it in our new designs. To break it down a little, I believe that my outreach for new volunteers and volunteers was the highlight of my time here. It is so much more sustainable and efficient to take the help of individuals who 1) live nearby and 2) want to lend a helping hand. This helps increase the morale of the entire neighborhood, even when times are hard. I also petitioned hard to use only locally sourced materials. A handful of the time, some of the materials would be bought in San Diego and then transported across the border. Not only was this complicated, but this was also kind of silly. Why would we not buy supplies from the individuals who live nearby? This would further help promote economic stabilization and morale. Now, to the best of my knowledge, all of the materials are bought locally. Lastly, I made a ton of design improvements that I thought were necessary for airflow and comfortability of residents. In AutoCAD, which is an engineering application, I designed a few different models for updated houses. These models included small standing walls and updated insulation in the walls. I had already worked with the project manager in the past, so we went ahead and incorporated my updates into a new design. While this is rather hard to measure, the team believes that this makes a huge difference in the hot and cold days. Lastly, my team also wanted to put vegetation in our design, and help bring some aesthetics to the house. This was something super small, but I believe that this could help individuals from a food standpoint, and a sustainability one. Although this project was relatively quick, I have really started to put an emphasis on gardens for food (for every house), as well as using the sun to heat up water tanks on the roof. The water tanks are something that I have been curious to try out for a while now. Again, it is super fulfilling to have the potential to take something I used in the classroom, and apply it to communities in need. To reiterate, I was just a volunteer like the rest of the individuals. I believe that I took a leadership role, where I felt like it was needed. This just goes to show how you can be a leader in a handful of ways. Although I am not the project manager, I was passionate about these strides towards sustainability. As a result, we were able to bring them to life.
I really do plan on being involved with Project Mexico for a handful of years to come. Especially now, I am super enthusiastic and passionate to see the impacts that these new project designs are able to make. As previously stated, I am very interested in exploring solar water heaters. Since these homes do not have electricity, I am thinking that homes could implement a tank with water that is exposed to the sun. This tank would allow individuals to have warm water for a handful of uses. This is something I would like to stick around for. I truly believe that this will make a huge difference in their lives.