The Casa de Ayuda Nuestra Comunidad project (Our Community House of Help) was founded by Elizabeth Gama Mondragon of Toluca, Mexico and Susan Unger of Longmont, Colorado. The two women met in 1999 when Susan was teaching English classes and Elizabeth was one of her students. They became friends and found out that they had a shared dream. Both women wanted to do something to assist the very poor in Mexico. In July 2005 we received our official non-profit agency status in Mexico. This in a very important step in creating our legetimacy to work with the government and other organizations in the future. Recently, D.I.F. (the social services agency in Mexico) began discussing with us how they can assist us in our efforts and we have established relationships with local businesses who are donating food for us to distribute. We are nearing the end of a long process to obtain the correct paperwork to bring our wheel chair accessable van (which was donated to us from a local non-profit organization) into Mexico.

We expect to transport the vehicle after the first of the year. We are very excited to be able to provide transportation services to those individuals who use wheelchairs. Many, many people in Mexico who use wheelchairs are basically trapped in their homes because of lack of affordable transportation services, and an almost universal lack of wheelchair accessability. We are looking forward to being able to provide a much needed service to these individuals. Additionally, we have filled the van with 13 wheelchairs, three walkers and a personal lift as well.