Hi, I am Fr. Bill Thaden, a priest of the Diocese of Cleveland. Before I came to my current parish I worked for 5 years on the Diocesan Mission Team in El Salvador, Central America. During that time I came to know Guillermina Bonilla, her husband Concepcion Garcia and their family. Concepcion had some land on which he worked as a subsistence farmer growing corn to support the family. He died in March of 2000. Since then the family has struggled to make its way. Their children are trying to support their own families now.

I have tried to help Guillermina, pictured here during my June 2021 visit, as I have been able. She just had successful surgery on both eyes, saving her eyesight! The problem she is facing now is that her adobe (mud) house, pictured in the background, is in danger of falling in at any time and already does not keep them dry. She lives there with a son and a daughter.

I thought I could get a cinder block house built myself, but the steeply inflated costs of construction materials (same as here in the U.S.) has made it more than twice as expensive as before COVID. What you can see in the attached video is what I've been able to achieve with a little help from some friends. We've already invested over $10k to get this far, but I'll need others like yourself to come together to be able to finish the job. We need to purchase the materials for the roof, the floors, the ironwork for the windows and doors, the electric installation, and the toilet. We are blessed to have found reliable workers and they need to be paid.

I am immensely grateful that you have read all of this. I have waited until this far into the project to do this because I didn't think I would need to do it. So in order to keep the construction going I am hoping for a quick and generous response to this request. God bless you for any help you can offer to get us over the finish line.

-Fr. Bill