Smokeless Stoves: The Socoy Family

The Socoy family lives in El Rosario, a small community in the department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Marta takes care of the home while her husband, Santiago, works in the fields growing crops to export to the United States. Including children and grandchildren, there are 8 people in the Socoy household. Marta and her daughters cook for the entire family on the new smokeless stove they built by partnering with Habitat for Humanity Guatemala.

“I cooked on a metal grill before.” says Marta. “I like my new stove I don’t burn my arms when I cook anymore. And there is a lot less smoke. We built a new kitchen and built the new stove in here and now the kitchen isn’t smoky when we cook!” Santiago agrees Marta, saying: “It is so good that the new stove doesn’t fill the kitchen with smoke.”

“We also use a lot less wood.”, Marta finishes. “We buy our wood and now we buy less.”