$40,000 Sought for 40 Houses in Nicaragua
Forty houses for $40,000. In the crazy world of Los Angeles real estate, where the average price of a house now starts at nearly $190,000, that kind of brick for your buck is completely unimaginable. For a Topanga-based group of architects, planners and volunteer labor force working to help rebuild war-ravaged Nicaragua, this kind of development is just another “day at the office.”
Architects and Planners in Service to Nicaragua--with a little help from friends--will be “Raising the Roof” at a fund-raising party today to finance some of the bricks, wood, nails and tin needed for its 1988 construction project of 40 houses, two schools and two water projects on agricultural cooperatives inside Matagalpa, a northern province in Nicaragua.
Donations Sought
The hoopla, scheduled from 3 to 10 p.m. outside the group’s offices, 1424 Old Topanga Canyon Road, is the fourth annual fund-raiser for the organization, and anyone willing to donate $7 is encouraged to attend.
Several local Latin groups will provide the entertainment, including America Mestiza, a traditional acoustic band, accompanied by Cuauhtemoc, a Mexican Aztec dance group, said Meg Appleman, the event’s entertainment coordinator.
“America Mestiza uses indigenous instruments: flutes, wind instruments and reeds . . . . It’s incredibly beautiful music,” she said. Cuauhtemoc, she added, will dance in full Aztec costume.
Additionally, there will be dancing throughout the evening with music provided by Los Sencillos, a popular Latin dance band in Los Angeles. Appleman said the program will also include performances by folk singer Peter Alsop, plus local musicians Ellen Geer and Melora Marshall, from the Topanga Theatricum.
Families can also participate in games and enjoy typical Central American dishes of beans, rice, chicken and tostadas. Traditional arts and crafts will be for sale.
Ongoing slide shows and video tapes on Nicaragua will be shown, and participants will have an opportunity to donate actual parts of the houses built, said Steven Kerpen, executive director and co-founder of the organization.
“What we do is auction off a house, so to speak,” Kerpen said. Prices range from $4 for a door lock to $100 for 200 linear feet of framing lumber. (Enough nails to build a house cost $25.)
We have an auctioneer, and we let people bid on the items. It’s a lot of fun and it gives people a real sense they are donating something tangible to these people,” he said, adding that they hope to top the $3,000 raised last year.
The organization was started four years ago by Kerpen and his business partner of 17 years, David Marshall. Both men are architects and have been working on public and private housing projects for low-income families, the elderly and the physically handicapped for more than two decades.
1984 Nicaragua Trip
In 1984, Kerpen led his first delegation of architects and planners to Nicaragua in order to “see what the problems were. The two men had already formed a corporation, People’s Housing Inc., and a research arm, People’s Center for Housing Change. They established the architects and planners organization as a project under the research arm. After recruiting other professionals and borrowing $50,000 as seed money, they established work brigades of professionals and non-skilled laborers, including students, teachers, artists and even dentists to go to Nicaragua.
In addition to the work brigades, the organization also sponsors delegations and a technical assistance program staffed by volunteers who commit to six months of work in Nicaragua. Information: (213) 455-1340.
