For many years, Guadalupe lived with her large family in a small house in Tecpán, Chimaltenango that was destroyed by Hurricane Stan in 2005. An aid organization gave them a temporary home built on a different site near a river, and the family of fifteen stayed for several years. In 2010, they were in the process of building a more permanent home nearby, when Tropical Storm Agatha struck.

Guadalupe says, “I never thought it was possible for the river to get to the height it did. We left our home running and did not have time to save anything. We spent the night at an institution close by and when we returned, it was like a lake inside our house. Everything was destroyed.” Their temporary home was destroyed and all their personal items lost. The family spent the next four months living at a school. Habitat found the family, and they immediately qualified for two separate new homes under our Disaster Response program.

Guadalupe’s new Habitat home that she shares with her five children has two bedrooms and there is a separate kitchen outside. She feels confident that the new home will be just fine during storms. When we caught up with Guadalupe in the new house, she had this to say, “We felt so glad to find out that Habitat was going to help us build a house. Thanks to the [donors], we have our own, safe home. I am very happy with our new home. It is so secure and that makes me happy.”

Homeowner Cruz Guarcas Coc is a proud recipient of a British Berkefeld water filter by Habitat. She is very excited about the changes that have been made to her life because of her new water filter.

Before owning her water filter she drank from her pila (sink) which often left her sick, but now because of her filter and other Habitat products she believes, “Everything has changed for the better because of my access to drink clean water every day.”

Roughly 25% of Guatemalans don’t have acess to clean drinking water, which often carry water-borne diseases that can cause acute diarrhea among other problems. Providing water filters like these is one way Habitat Guatemala works to reduce health risks.