Mauricio Ruiz is a 2011 TI Founders Community Service Award winner for his commitment to helping improve the lives of people in need in Nicaragua.

For TI empoloyee Mauricio Ruiz, returning to Nicaragua each year is more than just a homecoming. Over the past 10 years, he and his family members have traveled to 10 different Nicaraguan communities to improve the lives of the families and individuals who live there.

Ruiz, a TI technical specialist, saves all of his vacation time each year so he can spend 30 days in Nicaragua helping to rehabilitate communities and lift the residents’ spirits.

During his visits, Ruiz leads his team of family volunteers in the restoration of nursing homes, schools, hospitals and homeless shelters. They also provide much-needed food, clothing, toys and basic household goods using their own funds and a few small donations.

“Ruiz saves money in a small can throughout the year to help fund the trip,” said fellow TI employee Daniel James, who nominated Ruiz for a 2011 TI Founders Community Service Award. “Through sharing his experiences with co-workers and friends he has received small donations, but the majority of the funding comes mostly from Ruiz’s own resources.”

A family affair
Ruiz has a deep connection to his native country. He launched his support efforts more than a decade ago after a mudslide devastated a small Nicaraguan community and left its residents in despair.

“The whole community was covered with mud, and people lost family members and everything they had,” Ruiz said. “At that time, my sister made a commitment to help the people of Nicaragua and I started helping her.”

From that point forward, Ruiz and his sister have selected a community with the greatest need to support each year. Ruiz, along with his sister, wife and three children, then spend the month of December in that community delivering food and supplies and helping the residents restore community buildings.

The small things matter
During their most recent trip, Ruiz and his family traveled to Leon Nicaragua to provide food, clothing, books, toys and utensils and to make repairs to a variety of community buildings.

One of the main goals of this trip was to exchange plastic bags for cups to use for drinking, along with bowls and utensils for eating and cooking. Ruiz said these basic household goods are hard to come by in the communities that he visits.

“Most of these people have nothing and get by using what they pull out of the trash,” he said.

In addition to providing supplies, Ruiz empowered the residents by giving them the tools and knowledge they need to make small repairs to community buildings after he leaves.

“His impact far exceeds the time he spends with the community,” James said. “Ruiz’s commitment is not only a labor of love, but a gift to the community that will live for many generations through the children who are touched and see what a person from TI does to help out others.”

A cumulative effect
Ruiz’s work has impacted the lives of thousands of families, children and senior citizens.

Annually, Ruiz and his family provide more than 450 pounds of food to the communities he visits along with hundreds of pounds of clothing, tools, books, school supplies and basic home goods. They have also created over 180 places of shelter in different communities using wood extracted from indigenous trees.

“This entire experience has taught me to appreciate what I have right now including family, work, health and opportunity,” Ruiz said. “These people don’t have any opportunity to better themselves, and I feel we need to share what we can.”