YWAM San Diego/Baja News

Homes of Hope Launches in Jamaica

Homes of Hope, which began in 1990 in Tijuana, has now gone global.

This summer 39 teens from nations ranging from Canada to Dubai, whose parents are members of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a global group of business leaders, built three homes for the poor in the Montego Bay area of Jamaica. The Jamaican families receiving the homes have faced many challenges.

One of the recipients, Hyacinth Blackwood, a 37 year-old mother of 6, lived in a 50 year-old 3 room shelter held together with scrap tin and broken beams. The floor was covered over by a piece of tattered linoleum. Since the roof leaked, she put an old rug over the roof’s tarpaulin and deteriorating boards to slow the drips; she kept the clothes dry by piling them in two large covered drums. Recently, while her son was fixing a new hole on the roof, he fell through, further damaging the support beams and making the house even more dangerous. This lent credence to Hyacinth’s fear the roof would someday cave-in on her family. But safety was not her only concern. The dampness of their living conditions aggravated her children’s asthma problems.

Since Hyacinth’s husband is in jail for the next 9 years, (he is allegedly serving time for a crime his brother committed in order to keep the young brother out of jail) she is the sole supporter, cleaning toilets on the weekends. This job barely earns her enough money to feed her children, so she sometimes relies on the mercy of a local food bank but often doesn’t eat to make sure her children get a little more food. She proudly describes how, despite signs of anemia, her children thrive in school. Her hope is that they will stay in school and have a brighter future.

Sean Lambert, founder of Homes of Hope, describes the experience of seeing Hyacinth receive a new home. “I could see the hope fill her heart. She now had a larger house, one with a leak-proof roof, a locking door, and workable windows—one that was structurally safe. Hope for the future is our most powerful weapon against the despair that poverty brings.”

In addition to the house, the family also received two new beds, a new kitchen table with matching chairs, and a new stove and propane tank.

YWAM Jamaica to date has built 6 homes for the poor. They want to expand the number of homes they build each year, working closely with the community leaders and local churches. Because Jamaica is an area at risk for hurricanes, the team added hurricane clips to the roof and trusses to give the house extra strength against hurricane-force winds.


In the last two years the success of HOH has been replicated in other YWAM centers around the world, places like Panama, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Paraguay, and Jamaica with plans to open programs in Rwanda, the Philippines, and Haiti.

The growth of Homes of Hope internationally is a result of the interest in short-term mission trips and of the rewarding experience in giving a deserving family basic shelter. With Homes of Hope, groups own the project, generating the funds and the team to build the home. The inherent flexibility enables Homes of Hope to adapt to various cultures from around the world through established YWAM bases. What stays the same? The sharing of God’s love by giving a needy family adequate shelter.

When this YPO teen team replaces a house that most of us would consider inhabitable with a new Homes of Hope house, they faithfully follow the call to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). These volunteers do inspire us all.

By Julia Lambert Frericks