ABOUT DOXA
History
In the mid-1980’s, a family of 6 living under cardboard or a tarp draped over pallet crates had become an increasingly common sight in Tijuana, Mexico. The population of Tijuana was exploding as people continued to flock to the border city, drawn by the hope of local jobs or crossing into the United States.
Tony, who began the orphanage Casa Hogar de los Niños in Tijuana, asked his friend Rod to design a simple-to-build, inexpensive, and durable house. The result was a 12ft x 24ft wood frame house built on a four inch concrete slab that was both affordable and simple enough for someone with no experience to build using only a hammer and saw. The prototype of this house was first built by Rod, his friend Scott, and a team of youth from their Los Angeles based church.
Shortly thereafter, a Seattle youth group approached Tony about staying at Casa Hogar de los Niños during their annual house building Easter mission. Tony welcomed them and suggested trying Rod’s house design. It was such a positive experience that they returned year after year. Soon many other youth and adult house building trips were occurring, all based out of the orphanage.
With the rapid growth of the house building ministry based out of Casa Hogar de los Niños, youth pastors of two churches in the greater Seattle area realized the need for another facility. They approached Tony with the idea and asked him for his suggestion. God’s sense of humor and perfect timing was visible in Tony’s suggestion as the woman who owned the neighboring property had asked him that morning if he wanted to buy it. One of the youth pastor’s congregation raised the funds and purchased the ‘Annex.’
With the Annex in possession, the need to support Casa Hogar de los Niños, organize hundreds of youth/adult groups and to provide an efficient supply of building materials, Homes Without Boundaries (HWB) was formed (1998). Since its inception, HWB has been enabling thousands to build homes with the goal of building over 100 homes annually.
As HWB continued to grow so did the vision. In early 2007 the board members realized that we had out grown HWB and it was time to not limit our mission to house-building, but to begin to foster the seeds we had planted in the community by enabling children to go to school and participate in structured after school activities. With this type of expansion HWB was no longer the appropriate name for our organization and we undertook the process of forming DOXA to encompass our mission of serving thru house-building, education, and community. DOXA was officially formed in 2011.
The Experience
Group Information
Orphanage Information
Safety and Security
How to Support House Building
