Volunteers Lend a Hand in São Paulo

São Paulo | August 24, 2011

Volunteers CG Kelly, Consulate Staff and Bloomberg Employees setting out with supplies for the day

On Saturday, August 20, nine volunteers from the U.S. Consulate sanded and painted walls, removed heavy debris, mixed cement, and even laid bricks to help residents of Taboão da Serra make their houses their homes.  The consulate staffers were responding to a call by Habitat Para a Humanidade Brasil to help rebuild five houses in Taboão and, joined by Consul General Thomas Kelly, they worked with the residents and other volunteers from the Bloomberg Group to perform the basic tasks to make the houses far more comfortable.   

After a short meeting during which residents of the community spoke about how Habitat had changed their lives -- one resident beamed while describing how happy she was after Habitat volunteers had put an addition on her home that added bedrooms for her children and grandchildren – they got to work.  Besides the sheer satisfaction of providing better housing to needy families, the volunteers were very happy to have the chance to share the workload side-by-side with the residents.  The day ended with a final group meeting during which the residents and the volunteers thanked each other for their efforts.   

This was the first opportunity the Consulate officers had the chance to make lives better one house at a time with Habitat Para a Humanidade Brasil but many of the volunteers have swung hammers before at Habitat projects throughout the United States.   The Consulate anticipates that we will have many more opportunities to help communities rebuild.