Meet our families – Page 69 – Hábitat para la Humanidad Guatemala

The María López Family

Maria Lopez, 49, is the strong matriarch of a household of 18 children and grandchildren. With so many mouths to feed, she is constantly busy cooking, cleaning, and weaving baskets to sell around town. Accordingly, it is essential that her home has a reliable and functional stove.
For years, Maria cooked on a stove that would start unwanted fires and produce lots of smoke. Her whole family was breathing the stove’s smoke daily and her home was dirty with smoke residue. This all changed when she found out that, with the help of Habitat, installing an alternative smokeless stove would be possible.
Maria has fond memories of the volunteer team that came to construct the stove. She remembers, “The brigade worked so hard. I am so grateful for them.” She can now cook all of her family’s favorite foods on the stove top without burning her hands or getting lots of smoke in her eyes.
In addition to the stove, Maria’s family is happy to have a brand new latrine in the backyard. It has sturdy wood walls, a tin roof with open space for ventilation, and best of all, a plastic toilet covering the earth. Maria remarks, “It is better than our old one, because I don’t have as much of a mess here.”
Overall, the new smokeless stove and latrine have provided healthy and clean upgrades for Maria and her family, taking necessary steps to reduce the risk of lung and and airborne disease.

The Margarita Dolores Pacheco Family

For Marcela Jojero, age 79, receiving her smokeless stove was an emotional rollercoaster. Amid the excitement of the volunteer team’s arrival and the construction of the new stove, Marcela’s husband, who had been suffering from an illness for some time, passed away. Surrounded by Habitat volunteers and family, Marcela mourned her husband’s death. “It’s such a shame that he couldn’t live to enjoy the stove,” she says. Nevertheless, with her husband’s memory alive and strong, the stove brought much happiness and improvement to her life.
Sacarias Cacach, age 12, and Maricela Cacach, age 13, are two of Marcela’s grandchildren who speak the native Mayan dialect and Spanish. They explain that the new stove is much better than the old one. It is easier to use, produces no smoke, and uses less wood to stay hot. Maricela explains, “The new stove is great. It’s easier to clean and cooks food faster.” They often help their grandmother with cooking on the new stove and cleaning it with a small straw brush. Together they cook tortillas, soups, and vegetables, among other favorite foods. Marcela misses her husband everyday, but is happy to be able to easily cook and share meals with her children and grandchildren.
Their new smokeless stove causes less damage than the old one – both to their health and to their house. The house is no longer filled with smoke, and its users can breathe freely. Now, kneeling over a fire on the ground is just a memory.

The María Chacah and Ana Rosalia Families

Maria Chacah Samol, age 45, and Ana Rosalia Sanic, age 23, live next door to each other and are always busy cooking for their husbands and children. They are both thrilled to have received new stoves and latrines from Habitat, which they agree are much better than what they had been previously using. Ana Rosalia explains, “We called Habitat because, above all else, there were problems with how much smoke the stoves were producing.”
The new stoves use less wood, are bigger, and are much easier to use. Whereas the old stoves would use ten logs of wood to stay hot, the new one requires as little as two. Furthermore, the families no longer have to worry about the health risks of breathing in smoke day after day while cooking. The new stoves produce virtually no smoke, and thus are much safer for their growing families.
Growing families also need clean and hygienic bathrooms, so Maria and Ana Rosalia are grateful to have new latrines. The new latrines are a great improvement, as they are well ventilated and have plastic toilets covering the earth, which are much easier to use and clean.
The two women remember the construction process fondly. They say that the international volunteer team was friendly and hardworking. The new stoves and latrines serve as daily reminders of the wonderful crew that dedicated their time and energy to helping their families live healthier and easier lives.

Trudging through the rain under a half-broken umbrella, Michelle Guzman reaches in her pocket for her house key. She walks with her little daughter, Cecilia, who is happily tiptoeing through puddles to her door, as if it were a game.

Michelle, a proud parent of 10-year-old Cecilia and 3-year-old Mia, is coming back from her work at a restaurant where she sells tortillas de harina, or flour tortillas.

“Me? I’m proud of my work!” she says. “Once I went to that restaurant, and I loved the food. So I decided to work there.”

She tells about where she used to live. Her old living arrangements were her mom’s house, a 30-meter walk down the path. “It was tight,” says Michelle, widening her eyes. “There were three rooms, and there were four of us. Everyone wanted their own space. And on top of the ruckus of my girls, it was too much.”

“And,” says Michelle cautiously, “my mother has a character…”

Michelle was living under her mom’s roof for a long time raising kids for years. She had tried to get her own house, but there was no way to gather thousands of Quetzals at a time for a plot of land and a house.

“That’s the advantage of Habitat,” she says. “You can pay monthly, you don’t have to pay it all at once.”

Her mother’s house was a Habitat house, so she thought, why not get my own?

Before long, a group of volunteers from Thrivent Financial were bending iron, hauling blocks, and making memories. Upon remembering them, Michelle opened her eyes wide and said, “they helped a TON! They worked really well together and they wanted to help as much as they could. They were so noble. Not every person does what they did. We are really thankful for their help, and our doors are always open for them, even my mom’s doors!”

For Michelle, the biggest difference that the house has made is that her family is now stable. Before, they were living in cramped quarters in her mom’s house, and sometimes living with their father in another part of town. Michelle and the children’s father had decided it would be best if the children had a place to call home, so they permanently live in the new Habitat house with Michelle.

“In my mother’s house, they weren’t going to have a future. It’s best that they have a place to be. I want my daughters to have a stability and a future,” says Michelle. “Whatever happens, they can defend themselves because they have this place.”

Michelle also recognizes her role as a parent in the new found stability of her family. “It’s important that I make good decisions, because they depend on me and the decisions I make.”

Michelle is also taking care of more than just her kids. She babysits the neighbors’ kids during the day, so she can make a bit of added income to help make her monthly house payment.

“My kids finally have a place to be,” says 29-year-old Michelle. It’s apparent that she’s a proud mother by the way she holds her children and smiles as they giggle and play tag in their bedroom with the neighbor kids.

She’s going to paint the place olive green or mustard color when she gets the chance. And she has reason to, because her neighbors are going to have a little competition to see who can have the best artistic work in the neighborhood. “After I plant grass and a few trees, I’ll win it,” she says, smiling.

María Lopez, Margarita Dolores, & María Chacah

The María López Family

The Margarita Dolores Pacheco Family

The María Chacah and Ana Rosalia Families

The Michelle Guzman Family

National Office

Global Village Office