Local Jasper woman travels to Mexico to build homes and learn life lessons

When most people take a holiday, they want to relax, unwind and get away from the stress of the everyday world. But not one young woman in Jasper. For her holiday, she’s going to build homes for the needy.

From August 1 until August 10, Eman Ismaeil, 18, born and raised in Jasper, will be in the town of Vincente Guerrero in the province of Oaxaca, Mexico to build homes for two families there. One family has six children and the other has four. Both are being led by single mothers and are currently living in homes made of dirt, cardboard, tin, tarps and garbage. By the time Ismaeil and the other young adults partaking in Absolute Leadership Development’s Hero Holiday program is done building, the families will have fully fledged singe-story modest homes made of concrete, wood and other structurally sound materials.

“There’ll be some hard work, sure, and it’ll be hot, but I don’t care. It’s worth it,” said Ismaeil.

Ismaeil is at something of a loss to explain why she has the desire to travel thousands of kilometres to help build homes for people she does not even know.

“I like people and it just really makes you feel good, helping out,” said Ismaeil. “There are so many people who have so little and I just want to help out... Ever since I was little, it’s just something I’ve needed to do. I’ve just always had this thing where I have to help people.”

She remembers traveling to Egypt as a child.

“That was really the first time I guess that I saw poverty and then I realized how privileged, how super-privileged I really am,” she said.

Her sister, Mona, says Eman has always had a giving spirit.

“I read somewhere that when you give of your belongings, you aren’t really giving but truly giving is when you give of yourself. I see that to be true in Eman, where sending some cash to a country or just talking about what should be happening there is not enough,” stated Mona in an email.

Ismaeil said that she doesn’t want to be labelled a humanitarian. However, despite the good that she hopes will come from building the homes in Mexico, she said that she’s expecting to get a large dose of personal development herself from the trip.

She expects this because last year, when she was on a similar trip to build schools in Kenya for three weeks, that was precisely the experience she had.

“You get a lot out of it yourself. You see these people who have next to nothing, but they’re still really happy. It makes you evaluate your own life, what you hold to be important,” said Ismaeil.

“I think her trip to Kenya opened her eyes to the reality of the world and let her see (not that she was naive to start with) that there are people who need a little extra help and that we are the people who can give it,” stated Mona.

While laying cement foundations and raising walls in impoverished circumstances isn’t new to Ismaeil, this year she will be heading to Mexico on her mission all by herself. In Kenya, she went with five of her best friends from Jasper and they worked and lived together during the project. While Ismaeil will be living and working with other people her age who are also partaking in the Hero Holiday, in Mexico, she is going there on her own.

“It seems she has caught that “bug”, the one that makes these trips not only a fun thing to do once in a while but something that becomes a regular part of life. I imagine there are many more of these trips to come; this is just the beginning,” stated her sister.

Eman Ismaeil said that she doesn’t know a lot about Vincente Guerrero, which is located on the Pacific Coast, about four and a half hours south of San Diego, California. She knows that a lot of the people there are migrant workers and a lot of families are stretched thin as husbands leave their wives to go and find work wherever they can. Many people there live in homes that are of very low quality. They are prone to falling down, ventilation is poor and they do little to protect against the elements.

“It’s just a very low income area, I know that much,” said Ismaeil.

To go to Mexico to do the work, Ismaeil had to come up with money to pay for her ticket and accommodation in Mexico, as well as funds to pay for the materials needed to build the home. She said that her parents and family would be helping with the trip. She’s also been holding fundraising efforts around town. At the Canada Day parade recently, she was on Patricia Street selling hotdogs in an effort to raise money

“I made a lot of money there!” she said. “The community has really been super supportive.”