Building Bridges

In January 2003, Dan Dodrill, owner of Fort Myers' Daniel Wayne Homes, took a group of local builders to Rwanda to build a meeting center and dorm for Youth for Christ. Assisted by 30 Rwandans, they spent just eight days erecting the 7,000-square-foot structure using materials they had donated.

It had been almost nine years since at least a half-million people perished in a country-wide genocide in Rwanda, but the tragedy is still vividly etched into the national consciousness, Dodrill says. He visited a church where the bones and skulls of 5,000 people lie undisturbed as a memorial and a reminder. Tribal identification is now verboten, says Dodrill, and groups like Youth for Christ "are facilitating change in the country by changing people's hearts."

Dodrill was so moved that he formed the not-for-profit Builders Without Borders. The group next traveled to Haiti, where they replaced an 18-square-foot clinic with a new facility. They'll return to Rwanda this summer to build a primary school, with a high school to follow next year.

A representative from North Fort Myers' ECHO will join them on the Rwanda trip to teach Youth for Christ students about sustainable agriculture. Requests for help are coming from around the world, with projects in the works in Chile, Belize and the Ukraine.

Dodrill and his board try to work with organizations with strong track records and community support. The school project in Rwanda is critical, he says: 65 percent of the population is under 21, but only 20 percent of teens are in school. Graduating "means the difference between earning three to four U.S. dollars a week and $300 to $400," he says.

For information about Builders Without Borders, contact Dan Dodrill at (239) 514-3266.