Healthy Home Kit: the Velasquez Family

Magdalena and Manuel Velasquez live in the department of Sololá, Guatemala. In their community, the language that is predominantly spoken is Quiche. Manuel works on a farm locally while Magdelana takes care of their family and makes weavings, which she sells. They also have 5 children: 3 girls and 2 boys. Their oldest child is 18 and their youngest is 3 years old.

“Our old stove was 10 years old.”, shares Manuel. “We got it through another non-profit. Because it was so old, it had deteriorated and filled the kitchen with smoke. With the new stove there is much more space to work. There are no problems with smoke and we save a lot of wood.”

He continues: “I go collect wood in the mountains and I collect a big pile of wood that lasts a week and a half. As for the latrine, I dug the pit myself. It is good that we have the new latrine because we have a big family; now we can use our new latrine and the old one as well!”