Felipa lives with her husband Pedro, and their four children, Brenda (12), Wendy (19), Pedro (9), and Esvin (5), in the department of Sololá, Guatemala.

Before building their new house, Felipa and her family used to live in her parents home. «It was really old and crowded. We did not have enough space for our children,» says Felipa. The family learned about Habitat Guatemala from one of Felipa’s aunts, who is a Habitat homeowner, and decided it was time to have a place to call their own!

Felipa explains that living at her parent’s was really difficult, «my children needed a bigger space, we were too many living there, we even started having problems with my relatives. It is really different here, now my children have more space to do their homework and play safely, without anyone telling them what to do.

“I feel really happy with my house, before I felt sad not having my own space,”  says Felipa about with her new situation.

The Martín family is planning to paint the house and to add a big garden in the future. Felipa also likes to weave textiles, and now she has plenty of space to do so.

About the volunteers she recalls: «They were really polite, shared and played a lot with my children. They miss them!,» she continues by saying: “Thank you very much for your help and support, we hope to see you again soon. This is your house.”

Lucia Xitamul lives with her husband and their five daughters: Cecilia, Magdalena, María, Liria and Belinda.

She used to cook on an open fire stove on the floor and suffered several eyes infections because of the smoke.

“Now I feel very happy with my new stove, because there is no more smoke inside the kitchen. All my girls and I can make tortillas and cook faster. It saves a lot of wood too,” says Lucía.

About the volunteers, she has a lot of good memories, “they helped my build the stove, took pictures and then explained how should I use the stove,” she continues, “I feel very happy with my stove! Now I keep it clean and take good care of it. Thank you all for your support and the stories you told us.”