Paula Claussen's Contact Details

Paula Claussen's Company Details

Community Devlopment Projects Inc. dba Project Mercy Baja

, , • 2 Employees
Nonprofit Organization Management

What is Project Mercy?Project Mercy is a 501-C (3) non-profit agency based in San Diego, California. The goal of Project Mercy is the improvement of basic living standards and quality of life for impoverished families who live in conditions precarious to their health in the shantytowns of the colonias east of Tijuana, Mexico.What do we do?We build basic but sturdy houses for the poorest families in the outlying neighborhoods, or "colonias" of Tijuana, Mexico. When sufficient funds are available, we provide materials and plans for sanitary latrines.Why are we doing this work?The inadequate housing of the neighborhoods in which the corporation is working leads to health hazards year round. Rats, mice, tarantulas, and scorpions invade shacks built directly on top of the dirt. Leaking roofs and patched walls cannot keep the dusty winds of summer and the icy winds and rain of winter from entering the living quarters. Every year make-shift lean-tos collapse in high winds. Respiratory and bronchial ailments abound every winter; babies have frozen to death and fire claims lives every year as a result of poor heating attempts in flimsy shacks. Many residents do not have a latrine and empty human waste on the land.The resulting health and environmental hazards are enormous and multiply every month as more people arrive in the region, There is limited electric power and no sewage system. The terrain is barren and hilly. The area is ripe for disease and disaster from flooding. There are no homeless or temporary shelters and no soup kitchens for the hungry. Residents especially fear for their children with each approaching winter.