A Project Mexico crew of volunteers completing a wall section of a new home!Project Mexico has three main goals: to operate St. Innocent Orphanage (a home for abandoned teenage boys in Tijuana Mexico); to build homes for poor families in Tijuana, who live in squalid dirt floor shacks; and to provide an opportunity for people of all ages, but specifically young people, to come and participate in the work itself and be blessed in the process. Operating St. Innocent Orphanage – taking care of the most vulnerable population of orphans in Tijuana – is a difficult task, but well known among supporters. You may not know as much about the homebuilding program, but The Order of St. Ignatius has also provided reliable support for the poor families in Tijuana in their times of need.

The end results of all of our hard work sometimes goes unnoticed for years, but be assured that we are helping to save lives on a daily basis, especially in the rainy season. Every winter, heavy rains are predicted for the regions of San Diego and Tijuana. Within a few days of the forecast, it is not uncommon to hear of children dying in the rain storms in Tijuana. Relentless downpours and powerful winds pound the area, toppling trees, shutting down schools, and canceling airline flights. Successive storms can include hail, torrential rain, driving winds, and lightning – making roads impassable and causing widespread power outages. When the media reports mudslides in California that wash away solidly-engineered homes built to strict building codes with the best construction materials possible, imagine what is happening on the hillsides of Tijuana, Mexico, where hundreds of thousands of people live in third-world poverty with only dirt-floor shacks for shelter. There, rain means the misery of being cold and wet, with nowhere to go to get warm and dry, and people – especially the young and elderly – die from the rains.