Clemencia lives with her parents, siblings, and nephews, in the department of Sololá, Guatemala. She is a single mother and takes care of the whole family.

Clemencia feels very happy with her new stove, and says, “the old one used a lot of wood and took longer to heat. The new one does not uses much wood and heats really quickly! My sister and I are in charge of making the tortillas and now it is easier and faster!”

She has many memories of the volunteers: “One of them left a little stone inside my stove. It was from her garden, she said, and they also left a little heart shaped with wire.” Clemencia sends a message to the volunteers: “I am very happy and I want to thank everybody that helped us with this stove. We feel privileged to have this gift.”

Wilmer and his mother Juana are now living in their new Habitat home in the department of Sololá, Guatemala. Before partnering with Habitat Guatemala, Wilmer and his mom lived with one of Juana’s brothers. “My brother gave us a little room in which we lived in with Wilmer. It was really small and we did not have enough space for both of us,” explains Juana.

They started thinking about moving to a bigger house and searched for a rental. Yet, when Wilmer found Habitat Guatemala on the internet and did a little research, they decided it would be a better investment to build a house to call their own!

Juana explains how they feel with their new house: “We feel content because now, I can go to church and other places. I have my own key and Wilmer also has his key. We are comfortable going in and out of the house as we please.” They are planning on adding doors to each room and painting the house in the future.

Wilmer likes to play music. He plays the guitar and piano, and now he is free to practice whenever he wants.

About the volunteers, Juana remarks: “The volunteers were really happy and funny, they also shared a lot of ideas on how they build in their country,” she continues, “thank you very much for your help on building our house and the ideas you shared with us. We are very grateful because you worked really hard.”

Juana and Javier live in the department of Sololá, Guatemala. Javier works in the field while Juana takes care of their family. They have three children, Jonathan (8), Walter (6), and Daniel (1).

“We used to cook on an open fire stove, and the smoke made my eyes hurt. My little boy got pneumonia because of the smoke,” says Juana about her old stove. “We have to buy the wood and now we save a lot because the new stove heats quickly and cooks fast too,” she continues, “I feel happy with the stove. My children are happy too, because now we can eat around it without smoke in our eyes.”

Juana sends a message to the volunteers “we are very grateful for your help. We still keep the photos you left with us. May you all have a Merry Christmas!”