Erika Marlena Lopez (24) walks with a spring in her step. She is one of the most energetic members of her village and is always looking to get more involved with new community development projects, usually while balancing her youngest child, three-year-old Mabely, on her hip and her five-year-old son, Eliasa, tagging at her heels. The smokeless stove from Habitat Guatemala was just what she and her family needed.

“Our stove was smaller before. It was terrible,” she remembers. “We couldn’t make tortillas with it. It didn’t have a chimney, so smoke poured out of it. Plus, it was borrowed from a family member, so it wasn’t even something that we could call ours.”

Erika explains that the new smokeless stove has saved her family’s life. The new stove is taller, so her children cannot grab the burning logs. And they no longer have to walk thirty minutes to the nearest doctor in case they get sick.

The stove has also saved her family a bit of money and has made educational opportunities a bit more accessible, especially for her oldest daughter, Leidy (7). “Whatever money we don’t spend on firewood, we use for her so that she can go to school,” Erika says proudly. “We can buy her books, her materials, or other little things that she may need.”

When asked about the team that helped build her stove, Erika’s eyes light up. “May they keep fighting for us. We want to thank you for the work that you did. We have nothing to pay you, but thank you for giving us this stove. May God bless you. We are so grateful for your help.”

As an artisan, Delia (24) specializes in weaving beautiful xuipils, or traditional blouses worn by Guatemalan women. She has a work station set up in her home, complete with a loom and varying colored threads that she dyes herself. The work also allows her to keep an eye on her youngest, most rambunctious children, four-year-old Milady and one-year-old Diego and make sure that they don’t get into trouble.

Delia is relieved that she doesn’t have to worry one danger: her children burning themselves on an unsafe cooking stove. “The wood used to fall out of our old stove, and it would burn them,” she recalls. The previous stove had other problems as well. “We used to have thick clouds of smoke in the house. And it used so much wood. We had to buy a lot. And it was so expensive. About 60Q (about $8.50) for each batch of wood, which would last only 4-5 days.”

When Habitat for Humanity Guatemala presented the opportunity to build an affordable, safe cooking stove through its Healthy Home Kit program, Delia became immediately interested. Her father and father in law pitched in to cut blocks. Then, their family worked with international volunteers to build the stove together.

Since the project’s completion, Delia is pleased with how the new stove has made a difference in her family’s life. She says that, “there are no problems, it works well now. We can cook a little bit more than before.” More importantly, the new stove has allowed her to save a little bit of money for her children. “Any extra money we save, we use to buy more food so our children can grow.”

Delia is grateful for the group, and she wants to thank you the group for their hard work: “We thank you very much for coming and building the stove. It works beautifully, and it works well because of you.”