During a meeting with a village committee, Julia and her husband, Gabriel, first discovered Habitat for Humanity Guatemala’s Healthy Home Kits. They learned that the kit featured a smokeless stove, a sanitary latrine, and a water filter. It would provide them ample opportunity to improve their living conditions. After hearing these testimonials, Julia and Gabriel decided to participate.

Flash forward a few months later, Julia affirms Healthy Home Kits are helpful for families in need. She notes the changes in her family’s day-to-day life. Her new smokeless stove ventilates plumes of smoke out of her home, fostering a healthier kitchen environment. This scene is an enormous contrast with her old stove, which was built by another nonprofit organization, but failed to fulfil her needs. Composed of a few stacked blocks with a small grill on top, the old stove proved to be highly inefficient. There was no chimney. As a result, the room easily filled with smoke when Julia cooked, negatively affecting her health and putting her family at risk.

Julia’s new stove is bigger and easier to use, as well as economically helpful. She notes, the stove has saved her a tremendous amount of time, fuel, and money.“The most important thing about the new stove is that it consumes less firewood,” she remarks. By using less logs to fire up the stove, Julia’s family can save extra money, which Julia spends on “small pleasures” to brighten everyday life. “Like buying a chicken for Sunday lunch or new kitchen utensils to replace the old ones,” she explains, a smile tugging at her lips.

Saving money also allows Gabriel to buy new fabric, threads and needles for his needlework. When he returns from his work in the fields, Gabriel not only sews as a form of hobby. He also sells his work as an extra form of income, allowing the family to support itself.

Apart from the smokeless stove, the new latrine built by Habitat Guatemala volunteers works well. It is cleaner and safer for Julia and her husband. Their previous latrine had been built fifteen years ago and had fallen into disrepair. The ventilation system no longer worked. For that reason, it had become dirty and smelly, due to an unwanted proliferation of bacteria. Now, Julia’s new latrine fosters a cleaner and more private space,

Julia reflects, “I am happy with the Healthy Home Kit, and I am grateful to the group of volunteers who helped us.”

Carmen Choy

As rain falls down in sheets and lightning flashes, Carmen (74) stands in her kitchen, trying to warm up with the heat of her stove. She lives here with her son, Juan Carlos (48), who is blind. They are part of an indigenous Maya community that only speaks Kaqchikel, which is a commonly spoken local dialect in the Sololá Department of Guatemala. Carmen wears traditional clothing that her daughter made for her. These items are woven by hand and then dyed with natural colors extracted from plants. The colors, patterns, and geometric shapes of her “huipil” or blouse hold special significance in Maya culture.

This scene would have been impossible just months before. After warming herself up, Carmen reveals that she is pleased with her new smokeless stove for a multitude of reasons. She says proudly: “My new stove is bigger. I can cook several dishes at the same time.” She explains that the old stove was smaller and emitted a lot of smoke. When she prepares meals, she is no longer affected by smoke fumes, which negatively impacted her and Juan Carlos’s health.

Carmen learned about smokeless stoves as part of Habitat for Humanity Guatemala’s Healthy Home Kit program. Thanks to a promoter, who came to her community and gave a presentation to her neighbors, she found herself immediately interested. It would be an opportunity to significantly improve her family’s living conditions, despite previous attempts.

Three years ago, another nonprofit organization offered a latrine to Carmen. But soon after constructing it, the latrine quickly fell apart. The interior space became dilapidated, and the ventilation system failed. As a result, the space was dirty, and the environment, miserable. At that point, Carmen decided not to use it anymore, eliminating her access to sanitary services.

For these reasons, Carmen is glad to have a new latrine. During the construction, she specifically asked to the site manager to dig the hole wider than planned, in order to extend the use of her latrine. Her reasoning? “I wanted it to last as long as possible.” She also notes that the new latrine is much cleaner and offers her more privacy than she had before.

Carmen also uses a water filter now. Her family no longer suffers from stomach pains, which were caused by bacteria in the river water that they used to drink.

Most of all, Carmen is grateful to the group of volunteers who came to help her. “I won’t ever forget the work of the group. Every day when I use my stove, the water filter or the latrine, I remember their kindness.”

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Miriam Ajcalong Xep

“Tortillar” (making tortillas) is a precious tradition that runs in Miriam’s family. As a child, Miriam used to prepare tortillas with her mother, whose own mother had taught her. The skill has been passed down throughout generations.

Now, Miriam lives with her mother and her two daughters, Miriam (9) and Astrid (2). She still makes tortillas, which she sells to her neighbors and at the market to earn her living. Although she makes 150 tortillas daily, Miriam only earns 30 to 35 quetzales (equivalent to $4.20 to 4.90).

To meet the demand for her tortillas, Miriam must use a stovetop surface to grill them. Before participating in Habitat for Humanity Guatemala’s Healthy Home Kit project, she used to share the stove with her mother and always needed to wait until her mother had made her own tortillas before using it. However, one day, that all changed. “When the neighborhood committee came to my door to tell me that I could have my own stove, I was so glad,” Miriam remembers.

Soon after, a volunteer group came to help with the stove’s construction. Miriam has fond memories of that day. “When the group came to build the stove, I was glad to have them in my house. They were so enthusiastic, it made me so happy. I thanked God to have sent me the international volunteers,” she exclaims. “Thanks to them I have a new a stove, latrine, and water filter.”

Miriam is proud to have her own stove and says that it is a gift from God. “I needed to wait one week after the construction of the stove to use it. It was really hard because I was so excited to try it.”

The Healthy Home Kit has also significantly improved Miriam’s economic situation. One benefit is that her new smokeless stove allows her to save money. “It only needs three pieces of wood to heat up,” she notes. “Before, we needed more wood. I used to buy some every fifteen days, but now it lasts more than a month.” By saving money from foregoing firewood purchases, Miriam and her family buy other items. “I spend it to buy some things for my daughters, to make them happy.”

In addition to her stove, the water filter has improved her family’s health. “We suffered from stomach issues because of the water, mainly because it was not clean,” Miriam says.  “Now, we have pure water.” Miriam also saves some energy thanks to the water filter. “Before our water came from the village. Every two days we needed to fill our water tanks. Now, thanks to God, with the filter, all we have to do is clean it, fill it, and use it again.”

Lastly, Miriam notes, her newly built sanitary latrine creates a safe and cleaner environment for her family.

Miriam is grateful to all of those who supported her. “I thank God, and then I thank the group for their help”.

Rosario Morales Suix prepares lunch in the kitchen. Her husband, Francisco (56) is coming back from his fields, exhausted. He lifts the lid of the pot, which releases the smell of tomatoes, onion, and garlic. He smiles, satisfied with the menu for the day.

Before building their Habitat Guatemala smokeless stove, Rosario was cooking in the ground. She explains how difficult it could be. “Three concrete blocks, some logs, and that’s it. I used to have a stove offered by another NGO, but it cracked. Every time I used it, it filled the room with smoke,” she explains. The smoke affected the health of their family, especially because their old stove used to be in the same room that served as a kitchen and bedroom.  “We used to cough all day,” she says. For that reason, Rosario had no choice to go back to the “old way of cooking” on the ground outside. She admits that preparing tortillas in those conditions was a laborious task and that she and her grandchildren often burned themselves from falling logs.

Francisco and Rosario came to know Habitat for Humanity Guatemala’s Home Healthy Kit program through a local neighborhood committee. “Francisco came back home and explained the project to me,” Rosario describes. “Both of us agreed immediately: it would be a great opportunity for us! We wanted to be part it.”

A few months later, Rosario is proud to say that, thanks to her new stove, she can easily prepare three dishes at the same time without burning herself. Plus, the chimney of her new stove works perfectly. “I feel much better. I don’t cough as often,” she says.

“The stove has also made my husband’s life easier,” Rosario adds. Indeed, because the stove consumes less wood, Francisco does not need to go as often into the forest for kindling. “It can be really hard to find wood, especially during the month of July. He could spend all the afternoon looking for some logs, and would come back with almost nothing. Now, with the new stove, he can rest after his work in the field.”

As a result with the Healthy Kit Program, Rosario family’s health has also improved in other ways, thanks to their new latrine and the water filter. While the new latrine fosters a cleaner and more private space, the water filter keeps the family safe from gastrointestinal diseases caused by contaminated water sources.

Rosario is grateful to the group who came to build the stove and the latrine. Thanks to Habitat for Humanity and the help of volunteers, her family’s life has become easier. Speaking of the group, she says: “I hope that they have a safe trip back home and that all of them and their families are doing well. God bless them.”