Maria Elisea lives in Aldea Xesuj with her two children, Maria (26) and Edgar (22) and her grandson Cesar (4). For the past 16 years Maria has cooked for her family using an open fire “pollo” stove.

Smoke from the open stove gave her fits of coughing and affected her eyes and lungs. Just recently, Maria received a smokeless stove from Habitat when a group of volunteers came to her village to help her build it. Maria says her favorite thing about the stove is the chimney that pushes smoke out of the house and keeps it from contaminating the air inside her house.

It is the greatest gift she has ever received, she shared. Maria loves her new stove. Now she can cook more items on her new stove. Her favorite food to cook on her new stove is a traditional caldo de gallina, or chicken soup. Now she spends less time outside over the open fire of her previous stove and now has an indoor area with her new smoke-free stove.

Maria is grateful for the ways the stove has improved her life and is thankful for all the volunteers who came to help build it.

Maria Fidelina Tubac, her husband Carlos Enrique and her son, Kendel Enrique live on the same plot of land as Maria’s two oldest children and their spouses. Also living with them is her father-in-law, who Maria helps to caretake.

She wanted a new smokeless stove because the old stove used a lot of wood and she was affected by the stove fumes they inhaled. “I have my father-in-law here and the new stove has helped a lot with his lungs. Now, it’s affecting him less,” says Maria. “The result is that more than anything it’s helped us. The smoke doesn’t stay inside.” With my new stove “it’s different because here I only use 2 (pieces of) wood and I don’t breathe in the fumes because the smoke goes directly outside. So, it has helped us a lot.”

Maria shared with us that her favorite meal to prepare on her new stove are her tortillas. “Because it’s what we cook here.” The flat iron grill and wide surface makes its easier to cook multiple at once.

To the group who came to build her stove, Maria sends her thanks, “more than anything I want to say is thank you for helping us because if we had to do this ourselves, it would be a great expense and we wouldn’t have been able to do something like this—thank you to all of you.