Mezcla is a blog that allows volunteers, future volunteers, and their friends and family to learn what Cambiando Vidas is currently working on to “change lives” in the Dominican Republic.  The blog will feature upcoming trips, family profiles and updates, volunteer testimonials, and updates on current and future projects.

What is Cambiando Vidas?

Cambiando Vidas is a U.S.-based, 501(c)(3) organization building international partnerships through the construction of houses for financially troubled families in the Dominican Republic.  Cambiando Vidas is dedicated to the belief that every human being should have access to all of life’s essentials – shelter, food, clothing, education, and the opportunity to realize one’s full potential and ambitions.

The organization builds small, safe, affordable, concrete-block homes that are strong enough to survive hurricane-force storms.  In addition to providing capital and labor, international build teams work hand in hand with the recipient families and community volunteers who provide much of the “sweat equity”.  By the end of the week-long build this unique mixing of concrete, people, and cultures reveals that people are more alike than different, and that a house is much more than a collection of concrete, metal, and wood.

Cambiando Vidas is not a charity. Every house remains the property of Cambiando Vidas until the new homeowner pays the mortgage in full.  The houses remain affordable because they are made primarily with volunteer labor and the mortgages are interest free.  Cambiando Vidas encourages sustainable economic development to work toward community self-sufficiency.

For more information visit the Cambiando Vidas Web Site.

What exactly is “Mezcla”?

Mezcla is the Spanish term for a concrete mixture of cement and rock that is used to hold the cement blocks that form the foundation and walls of the house. If you ask anyone who has been on a build they can tell you they came to know mezcla very well as they mixed, carried, and poured it constantly during the construction of the home.

The name “mezcla” is also appropriate for this blog because it will feature the ways in which cultures mix and come together to form a common goal – physically, a house, but emotionally and spiritually a meshing of cultures, experiences, and friendships that truly change people’s lives.

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