HOST : Many people around the world live under very challenging conditions. How do we change their lives?  Is it really possible to put an end to homelessness, illness, and a lack of basic necessities? Where do we start?

Villager (f):Son, I think it’s the best thing that God could have given me, a house.

HOST: Conscientious viewers, welcome to today’s Good People, Good Works featuring the loving, hardworking non-profit group, A Roof for My Country, also known as 『The Roof.』Headquartered in Chile, this organization builds housing for underprivileged individuals and families throughout Latin America.

Supreme Master Television recently spoke with The Roof’s social director Claudio Castro, who explained its origins and growth across the continent. 

Claudio (m): A Roof for My Country was born in 1997 in Chile, and it was the result of an initiative by a group of university students who decided mainly to address the question of how young people from the university are connected with their country through their occupation, how they are tied in with their country.
They met with a Jesuit priest named Felipe Berrios, and began this project that seeks to link the academic world with families living in settlements in extreme poverty through the construction of emergency homes.

So the idea is to go to these families, and for two days to live this experience of building with the family a home that improves their quality of life. 

That really is what A Roof for My Country is about; that is, to connect those of us who have had the most opportunities, university students, with those who have had fewer opportunities, the families living in camps.
The project was exported to Tacna, Peru. There were young people in El Salvador and youth in Peru, who began to replicate the project, and l today it has grown and we are present in practically all countries of the continent.

HOST: A Roof for My Country is currently operating in 18 Latin American nations. They are still expanding, with an office scheduled to open in Venezuela by October 2010.

For more details on A Roof for My Country, please visit www.UnTechoParaMiPais.org