Mónica González is a single mother of three children, eleven-year-old José, nine-year-old Valentina and one-year-old María Elisa. Before partnering with Habitat Guatemala, she lived with her parents, sharing one room with her three children. For a few months, she rented a small apartment,  but  it was too costly and had to move back in with her parents.  When her dad gave her a piece of land, and told her about Habitat Guatemala, Mónica decided it was time for her family to have their own home.

“One wants to be independent, and when your children start growing they need a place to call their own too,” says Mónica.

She explains how she feels about her house: “I am very happy. This home is a great blessing for me. It’s easy to think that as a single mother you can’t have these opportunities. The process was really easy and fast, and now I have my own house to live in and take care of.”

The González family is planning on adding a garden and another room in the future. She also says: “on Sundays we play soccer and fly kites with my kids. I am at ease because I know they are in a safe place where they feel free.”

Mónica has a picture of the group of volunteers in her living room and has very fond memories of them.  “They were friendly and strong, they worked very hard and it was fun too,” she says, sending a message to the group: “Thank you for all your effort and your love, because you help people you do not know without thinking twice.”

María Griselda and her family live in El Rosaria, a small community in the department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. She and her husband live in their home with four of their children and four grandchildren. They have several other grown children who live in their own homes nearby. While María’s husband and sons work in the fields growing crops for exportation, she and her daughters sell beans and corn, take care of the home, and cook food for their family.

María talks about her stove, saying: “It’s excellent, it’s a great help, it’s a good stove! I save a lot of wood.” Gesturing to the three burners on the stove, María talks about how she can cook multiple dishes at the same time. Pointing to the front burner and then the back burner, María says: “Here, I can make corn or beans. And here, I can make tortillas! This helps me a lot. ”

María finishes by explaining that now, because of the chimney that is part of the smokeless stove design, her kitchen does not fill with smoke when she cooks. “Before we used so much more wood and there was so much smoke. Not anymore!”, she says happily.

“Gracias a Diós la estufa funciona bien!” says María Alejandra about the new smokeless stove she now uses. Translated to English, this means, “Thanks to God, my stove works well!” She continues: “It works well with a little bit of wood and now I cook in fresh air!” María says that she takes good care of her stove, which means that it will function well for years to come. “Every 15 days I clean out the stove and I wash all the burners too.”

María Alejandra and her husband, who works in the nearby fields growing crops, have four children who are 9, 7, 5 and 2. Her two oldest children attend school, while she cares for the younger ones. “Right now we don’t have our own home.”, says María. Because of this, they live with María’s parents and three siblings, who also work in the fields.

In El Rejón, Habitat Guatemala works with a local volunteer named Margarita to find families in need of a new stove, lead trainings on how to build and maintain the stoves, and learn about what the needs of the community are so that future projects can be planned to continue improving life in El Rejón. This is how María family accessed their smokeless stove.

María laughs as she talks about the process of building her stove was like: “I told my husband I wanted a stove! He did the work and built the adobe blocks; it was easy for me! Sometimes people say we will have an opportunity and it doesn’t happen. Thanks to God this did!”

María Santos lives with her family in El Rejón, a town in the department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. She and her husband have four children who are 6, 4, 3, and 11 months. Like most people in El Rejón, María’s husband works in the fields during growing season, which lasts from March through October. In addition to helping in the fields, María takes care of the children and does all of the cooking for her family.

Like most of the produce in Guatemala, the fruit and vegetables grown in El Rejón that are considered to be the best are sent to the United States to be sold in grocery stores, while what is leftover is sold in Guatemalan markets. During Guatemala’s dry season, which lasts from November to March, there is little to know work in El Rejón, so families do whatever they can make money–from selling firewood to tortillas. Because of a lack of job opportunities, families live day-to-day and it is difficult, if not impossible, to save money for the future. For these reasons, partnering with Habitat for Humanity Guatemala is a way for families to improve their quality of life.

Before partnering with Habitat Guatemala, María cooked over an open fire on the floor of her kitchen. When María talks about her smokeless stove, one of this first things she says is: “The stove is high off the ground so my daughter can’t fall into the fire!” María elaborates on the other ways that the smokeless stove benefits her and her family: “We save wood, I can cook multiple dishes at a time, and the smoke doesn’t bother me anymore!”