Healthy Home Kit: Josefa Zapeta

Josefa, Gaspar and their three sons, Christian (13), Jose (7), Tomas (5) live in Sololá. The family have lived in their home for 14 years and just 6 months ago received their newly built Habitat stove.

“I have not used the stove much” Josefa shared. Just shortly after receiving her stove, Josefa was hospitalized “I had a lot of trouble with my vesicular. And they could not operate on it here in Sololá. I spent two weeks in the hospital in Quetzaltenango and still am not fully recovered.” Her illness left her weak and she often could not make the trip to the kitchen while she recovered.

“Now I am better, but still do not have the energy to stay for hours around the stove” she shared. When she has the opportunity and the strength to cook “I like to cook traditional dishes like chicken pepian” Josefa says. The family also obtained a water filter and latrine through Habitat. The latrine is built in the area where their old latrine was. “In the old latrine, the septic tank was full. It was concrete which also made it hard to clean. Now with the design of the new latrine, we can clean the plastic toilet seat much easier than we could with the concrete one.”

Josefa sends her gratitude to the group of volunteers. “You have made life better for my family and I am so grateful you came to help us.”