Florencia Saso lives with her husband Aurelio and their son Aureliano in a rural community in Sololá, Guatemala.

Before partnering with Habitat Guatemala to build a new smokeless stove, she used to cook on an open fire stove on the floor. Cooking that way caused several issues to her health.

Florencia explains how she feels about her new stove: “I feel happy, it has helped me a lot to improve my health,” she continues: “it also saves a lot of wood, now we only have to use one or two pieces of wood.”

She sends a message to the volunteers: “Thank you all for your kind support in building my stove. Now we can cook multiple dishes at a time. Have a Merry Christmas! May God bless you.”

Ezequiel lives with his parents in his new Habitat home, in the department of Sololá, Guatemala. His mother, Bonifacia welcomed us in to their home.

Ezequiel works as a blacksmith. He found out about Habitat through a relative who is a Habitat homeowner, and soon after he started the process to build a house of his own. “We feel really happy with the new house, we even painted it already,” says Bonifacia.

She has really happy memories with the volunteers that came to help them build the house, “they worked really hard, we are very grateful with them because of the great help they gave us. I pray everyday for them,” she continues, “thank you all, may God bless you and your family and repay you for all you have done for us.”

Florinda Tax lives in the department of Sololá, Guatemala with her husband and their four children, Brenda (11), Elizabeth (7), Yolanda (6) and Carlos (4). Her husband works in agriculture while Florinda takes care of her home and family. During the day, the three girls go to school and the youngest Carlos stays at home with Florinda. “I used to cook on an old stove with a lot of smoke, but with my new stove I do not suffer anymore. We save a lot of wood too,” she says.

Florinda explains how partnering with Habitat Guatemala to implement a Healthy Home Kit has improve aspects of her family’s daily life: “The water filter has helped us a lot. The water that is delivered by a truck to our house comes dirty, and before we had to boil it. Now, we just pour it in the filter, wait, and it is ready to drink,” continues Florinda: “before, we had to share the latrine of some relatives, but now our latrine is only ours, we have much more privacy and do not have to walk a lot.”

Florinda feels very happy with her kit and sends a message to the volunteers: “Thank you all for your hard work, we shared good memories and you will always be in our hearts!”

María Margarita, her husband Mario, and their son Daniel (4), are now living in their new house in San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá. Before partnering with Habitat Guatemala, María and her family were living between her parents and Mario parents houses. They did not have a permanent place to call home.

They learned about Habitat Guatemala from an aunt, and after her dad gave her a piece of land, they decided it was a great opportunity to finally have a house of their own. “My son kept asking where is my house, Mom?” says María, “that was the moment that pushed us to build our own home.”

The family is decorating their house little by little and have a lot of plans for the future, such as expanding their garden and painting the walls. “I started my little garden it took me an entire morning. My son said that I did a good job,” says María.

“I feel happy with our house. We enjoy time with our son, he likes to play a lot,” reflects María on her home.

To the volunteers, she says: “Thank you for your great and hard work, we made a big progress while you were here.”