Let’s think for a moment about what a truly just world would be like. A world where we all had the same opportunities to develop our skills and talents. A world where inequalities were merely a reflection of our rich diversity, rather than the result of painful socioeconomic, ethnic, and gender divides. A world where, when we make a mistake, we have a real opportunity to acknowledge it, learn from it, and correct our course. Where laws and social policies truly enabled each of us to give our best at work, in our neighborhoods, and within our families. Is this impossible to achieve?
At TECHO very TECHO many communities where this justice does not reach. These are places where people live in poverty and exclusion—often hidden and overlooked—and which are home to 180 million people on our continent. We see firsthand how getting through each day in these communities takes twice or three times as much effort. But we also see how heads of households give their all to raise their children, how community leaders search high and low and never give up, and how institutions are so warmly welcomed when they do more to improve these environments.
Achieving justice means ensuring that everyone has access to the basic material conditions necessary for life. Housing is one of them. That is why it has been recognized as a basic right by the United Nations. And how could it be otherwise, when the minimum standard for everyone is to have a place of their own—spacious, independent, and healthy—that provides security, well-being, and the minimum conditions necessary for personal development? When the impoverished majority achieves these conditions, we will be attaining that true freedom in which we all aspire to live.
At TECHO firmly TECHO that no household in Latin America and the Caribbean has to live on a dirt floor. And we make this possible by bringing together families, communities, and young people who are organizing themselves, demonstrating that change is possible.
Step by step, let’s continue transforming the region. House by house, neighborhood by neighborhood, let’s continue building a more just and poverty-free Americas and Caribbean.
Benjamín Donoso, S.J., President of TECHO .