Square in Recreo

Families participating in the “Rise up and Build” project of Recreo, Santa Fe, have recently started a new project: the design and implementation of a public park. HPHA has provided the land, as part of the project through which 38 houses were built, and by facilitating meetings with the neighbours, the project has now taken off with the families as the key players in achieving their vision.

“Each meeting we are part of, is a new opportunity for growing and improving as a community. In these meetings we have learnt to cultivate beautiful and practical qualities which have given us satisfactions everyday, such as listening to others, respecting the ideas and needs of others” one of our neighbours wrote in the feedback of one of the meetings.

The park will have swings and slides donated by the city council, and plants, flowers and trees that neighbours will plant. Another team initiative has been to request that the public transport pass through this part of the city, and the street that cuts through the rows of houses has been named by the neighbours, (they chose the name “19 de diciembre”, which is the date when the first lot of houses were dedicated in 2008. Now, with the support of HPHA, they wish to make a public space come to life so as to have a recreation area for children, where adults may also have a place to gather to share a “mate”.