The service accomplished by VISIONS participants in two decades is mind-boggling.
VISIONS participants don’t just ferry buckets of nails to carpenters or hand off cinder blocks and adobe bricks to maestros to put in place. Our participants do the work.
For construction projects we work with local masons and adobe maestros. Where we build with wood, we employ bona fide carpenters as full-fledged members of the leadership team. In the Caribbean where every home, school, community center and clinic was built to hurricane specifications, to date all structures remain sound, having sustained only minimal damage from hurricanes.
Here are data on VISIONS service projects since 1989. The list starts with construction and ends with the non-construction service that every program offers as well.What’s equally impressive is that all this ‘real’ work happened with time every week in every program to explore, wind down, have fun, and mix and mingle with our hosts.
Ground-up CONSTRUCTION GRAND TOTAL 1989-08
687 structures, including
Additions (rooms, roofs, porches, stairs, handicap ramps)
Schools
Homes
Community centers
Playgrounds
Outdoor pavilions and stages
Orphanage homes
Medical / dental clinics
Fire house
Bridges
Cisterns and walls
Irrigation canals and trenches
Trails and Environmental Walkways
Wildlife observation decks
Cleaner burning stoves
Compostable latrines
Bio-digestors
Greenhouses
Hatchery construction
Septic tanks
Play and exercise structures
Pole barns and pow wow arbors
Sun dance Lodges
Sweat lodges and steam baths
Athletic courts and fields
Fences and walls
Sheds-storage, food and garden sheds
Picnic tables
BBQ Grills/Pits
Ceramic oven
Chain saw mill
Humane Society dog houses
Sidewalks
Smokehouses
School Furniture-desks, chairs, shelving units
Benches and bleachers
Fish Wheel & Fishing Decks
Roads
In addition to ground-up construction are renovations and painting projects, totaling 205
Murals
Buildings (demo, refurbishing, winterize, etc.)
Fences and fencing Repair
Handicap ramp repair
Historic sites clean-up
Playgrounds and play structures
Roads (paving)
Classrooms & other rooms
Social Service Projects (over 250 to date)
Apprenticeships and internships with farmers and agricultural cooperatives, artisans and health workers
Children’s camps
English language instruction and intercambios
Volunteering with the handicapped and with elders
Oral history interviews & documentation
Environmental education
Gardening and farming
Tree planting
Animal husbandry, including preservation, data collection and recording
Dam and bridge restoration
Environmental surveying
Firebreaks
Weed eradication
Beach clean-ups – every season at multiple program sites
Food distribution
Ceremonies – preparing and serving food, set-up and clean-up
