A TEAM of Cumbrian and North Lancashire youngsters braved heat and worked hard to build a home in Mexico for a family in poverty.

The group, from Kirkby Lonsdale and Hest Bank, travelled to Tijuana as part of a trip organised by UK Christian Youth organisation Urban Saints and American charity Amor Mini-stries.

Dr Simon Kaye, one of the group leaders, said: “The young people worked very hard in heat and dust; mixed tons of cement with hoes in troughs, sawed rough timber by hand and hammered in hundreds of nails.

“They coped with a very long journey, a very windy, dusty campsite, stinky toilets, and a sand storm that turned the tents over.”

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Camping on the edge of the desert, using solar showers and earth closet toilets, the young people spent ten days building a house for the 20-year-old father, 17-year old-mother, and their four-month-old baby Sophia.

Led by Dr Kaye and Pauline Kaye, from Kirkby Lonsdale, and Dr Andy Craven and Dr Paul Wadeson, from Hest Bank, the 20 volunteers built the house without power tools, so local people could copy the techniques used.

Dr Kaye said: “We were really proud of each one of them. They worked cheerfully, were polite and caring, and put up with us when we were meant to know what we were doing and kept getting it wrong!”

The community build their houses from second-hand gar-age, or fence panels, but their creation had a concrete base, wooden-framed wire and stucco walls and a watertight, pitched and felted roof.

Before their work in April, the couple were living in a ‘rickety’ hut, about 10 feet square, with a rotten, leaky roof.

The group is holding a Mexican Evening, in the Methodist Schoolroom, on May 28, at 7.30pm, where there will give a presentation about the trip and provide some Mexican food.