High School Interact Clubs And Rotary Club Of La Jolla Join Forces To Build 21St House In Mexico For Needy Families

By Sally Fuller (LJ Light Article) –

Volunteers from the Interact Club at La Jolla High and The Bishop’s School were joined by members of La Jolla Rotary to build the 21st home for an impoverished family in Tijuana.

You may also read the article HERE on La Jolla Light’s website

The home design is 16×20 feet with a small sleeping loft. The homes are unheated, have no running water and no electricity.

 The non-profit Project Mercy manages all the client-side considerations. Clients are evaluated based upon their family needs, legal rights to the property, and other considerations. To date, Project Mercy has arranged construction of more than 1,500 homes in Tijuana neighborhoods.

The total expense is $4,600 for the building materials, the cement foundation, building supervision and two or three local framing carpenters. An outhouse with a septic tank is an additional $900. Funding comes from generous Rotarians, community members and Interact Club fundraising.

Volunteers need to be in good health and must possess a passport or green card. The build day begins with a rendezvous at Mission Bay Visitor’s Center at 5:30 a.m. The home-build begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends by 4:30-5 p.m. Due to unpredictable border waits, return to the visitor’s center ranges from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. At the end of the day, everyone is tired but happy!

Some people ask is it dangerous? Mexico is a developing country with well-publicized problems and attendant risks to visitors. Construction work is potentially dangerous and precautions are taken to reduce the likelihood of injury.

Plans are to build again in early March and late June. To join the effort, visit rotarycluboflajolla.com and click on “contact us.”

Oct. 28, 2014 Speaker: Carmen Chavez, Casa Cornelia – Central American Refugee Children

Beginning last year and specifically in the last few months, there has been an overall increase in the apprehension of Unaccompanied Children from Central America at the Southwest Border.  You may have seen it in the news. An experienced attorney, whose organization provides needed services to these children going through the legal process, will provide an informational overview and background on the issue of children traveling alone to the U.S. from Central America.  Come learn about this current issue regarding unaccompanied children at our border.

Biography

Carmen Chavez was born and raised in San Diego. She graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. degree in Political Science. While in college she became very involved in community service, especially in the area of human and civil rights.  She continued her dream to service the community through public interest law by attending Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, CA graduating in 1999.  While at Loyola she participated in Moot Court, Public Interest Law Foundation and La Raza Law Students Association.

After passing the California Bar Exam, she began working at Casa Cornelia Law Center fourteen years ago and currently serves as the Executive Director overseeing a staff of 17 and a volunteer base of over 300.  Casa Cornelia is a non-profit law firm in San Diego providing quality pro bono legal representation to victims of human and civil violations eligible for humanitarian protection under the law.

She started her service at Casa Cornelia as the recipient of the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, which allowed her to provide legal services to indigent victims of abuse and those seeking refuge from persecution and torture in their home countries.  As a Staff Attorney and then Associate Director, she handled VAWA, U Visa, T Visa, NACARA, Naturalization, and asylum cases affirmatively and defensively (Immigration Court and Board of Immigration Appeals), Special Immigration Juvenile Status (SIJS) for children and has argued successfully before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals several times.  During this time, Carmen has given numerous presentations and trainings to the legal community, social workers, law enforcement, students, community groups, faith community, parents and clients in San Diego County and elsewhere. She is a member of the American Bar Association, Lawyers Club and the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association.