FLASHES OF LIFE - We continue our journey in the EoC world by going to Argentina to learn about another story of life, the Domus Project.
The Domus Project (“domus” is Latin for “house”) was born as a response to the suffering of many Argentine families without a home. For many of them, home was a prospect so far removed from reality that they didn’t even dare to dream of it. The Domus Project was created for these people, opening doors to reciprocal relationships, to house building and to personal and social dignity.
Thanks to the project started by the municipality of Lincoln (Buenos Aires), today 25 Argentinean families finally see their right to own their own home realised; a dream made possible thanks to the participatory self-building housing project, launched in the municipality in 2019. Houses that bear “printed on the walls” the desire for home of the families who now inhabit them.
There are various actors involved: the Domus Project was conceived by Caritas Argentina in coordination 
with the Ministry of Regional Development and the national Habitat, within the framework of the Housing Plan named “Casa Propia” (Own House) that promotes self-building. The City of Lincoln donated the land and infrastructure and entrusted the local Caritas with the management of the project, which, among its objectives, aims to promote a culture of attention to the environment and sustainability through renewable energy, responsibility towards waste and the promotion of hygiene and work habits.
The houses are built to be energy-efficient but that’s not all: great attention is paid to taking care of the needs of the poor and to fostering the social and community integration of the future inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
The method used is ‘steel frame’ or, in other words, dry construction: after the 25 families who have built their houses in Lincoln, another 30 will do so in Bragado and the same number in 9 de Julio, two other cities in the region. The idea is for the neighbourhood to be an expression of integral ecology, one that thinks about caring for the earth as a worthy habitat of the human family.
The EoC has also been actively involved in the Domus Project for a number of years through a group of people in Lincoln who have worked tirelessly on the participatory self-building project of the first 25 houses, weaving a wonderful network of reciprocal relationships between the families, the instructors, the State, the local Caritas and all those involved, among whom there has been no lack of wounds, but no lack of blessings either.
“Many families had the dream of a home of their own and we set out to meet this dream, weaving fraternal networks, bonds of inclusion and commitment, to make this right a reality, through planning, work, dedication, love, ideas and enthusiasm. Then came the pandemic; but we kept moving on. It is touching how that piece of land has been transformed by now, and we have all been transformed with it.”
Of course there were difficulties but the people involved always started again with more strength and more love because they were building more than houses: they were constructing citizenship, bonds, the reciprocity of relationships, ecology.
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