Many of us like the idea of being able to do things ourselves, and the house members at Casa de Luz in Tijuana are no exception. In fact, there are many ways in which they want to take self-sufficiency to a whole new level.

Not only did they do the work to put up wooden reinforcements to protect the house members from falling through railings or down the stairs, but they even have a bicycle-pedal operated washing machine! This helps them keep down on their electric and water bill and be as environmentally friendly and self-sufficient as possible.

But in order to do things yourself, you need the tools to do so.

To get them a little closer to where they wanted to be, we got them some helpful things for the house — a hose to drain water from their washing machine, hooks for hanging bikes, poles for hanging clothes, a bathmat, saw, some nails, whatever they needed to supplement the supplies they already had.

Not even a full day after these were purchased, someone had already done a load of laundry, bikes were hung, the saw was used, and poles were hung. Not surprising for this group, but nevertheless inspiring to see people working so hard through the challenges, excelling despite and because of them.

Meet Steve! Steve is the Executive Director for ORAM, the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration, and member of the Alight family of organizations. Before joining ORAM, Steve served as the Senior Director of Global Initiatives at Out & Equal, the biggest LGBT workplace inclusion non-profit. Steve also launched a non-profit, Alturi, which increases engagement by American donors to organizations improving the lives of LGBT people globally.