Fifty homes improved, one at a time.
Since June 2026, for the Municipality of Toca, MARA has been improving 50 existing, occupied homes: 35 in the town and 15 in the countryside. It is a housing improvement programme funded with subsidies from Colombia’s Ministry of Housing and the Boyacá department government, and each home has its own assessment and its own budget. Depending on what each household needs, the work covers water and drainage lines, bathrooms and kitchens, roofs —including the removal of asbestos-cement sheets—, laundry sinks, floors, walls, doors, windows, façades and ceilings, and some homes get new sanitary units.
Toca, Boyacá: the town and its rural districts.
The works are spread across the town and the rural districts (veredas) of Toca, in Boyacá, the same department where MARA is headquartered. Unlike a project on a single site, here every home is a separate work front.
Building with the family at home.
The homes stay occupied while the work goes on. So the work moves one space at a time, so that no home is left unusable; belongings are protected and every visit is agreed in advance with the household, with support from a social worker. With work fronts scattered between the town and the countryside, crews are rescheduled every day depending on which homes can be accessed.
34.86 % as of September 2026.
As of 30 September 2026, the contract is 34.86 % complete. Work inside the homes began on 11 July, after each house had been visited and checked; in September there was work in 17 homes. Five of the seven site workers that month live in Toca. Completion is scheduled for 9 November 2026.
The photos show housing improvements from this contract, July to September 2026: a finished façade and two before-and-after pairs, of a façade and of a kitchen.
Better bathrooms, kitchens and roofs for 50 households.
Fifty households in Toca with bathrooms, kitchens, roofs and finishes in better condition, tailored to what each home needed and without the families having to move out.
