In 1999 I went hiking in a very beautiful, but poor, area of the state of Ceara. When we were trying to find a way to a mountain peek, I met the Feitosa Family. The couple had 10 children and was raising another one because the mother was sick after giving birth. I was extremely touched by the generosity of Dona Maria and Senior Olavio, her husband. I was also very intrigued how so many people would live in such a small house. It was a two room shack. The bathroom was outside. The kitchen was a outside wood stove and the water would come from a rubber hose from the hilltop spring.

He said he was trying to add another room, but his hand had become too painful after the strained of building his own bricks.

Really? Yes, he was producing the bricks of his house!

I asked him how much it would take to add another room and we went on to count the bricks, cement, sand, wood, roof tiles and service of a professional. it ended up being R$800 reals, about $200 dollars today.

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I immediately sent an email to my MBA class and some other friends and in a couple of days I had the money. I told Mr. Olavio I would come back after one month and that the terrain had to be ready to erect the building. Even though I was a stranger, he believed in me the same way I believed in him. That was the first house I helped build. The family started to grow and one of the daughters, Heliane, had a daughter with encephalopathy. I then felt compelled to help her build her house. I sent money from the US and in the summer of 2012 we went to finished up the paint.