The Eulalia Josefina Lopez Silvestre Family

“It burned the tortillas,” said Eulalia. Her old, basic, open-fire stove was very low to the ground and in such a bad state that she rarely used it. But that changed with the arrival of a smokeless stove from Habitat for Humanity.

Eulalia Josefina Lopez Silvestre lives in the canton of San Sebastian, Jacaltenango with her husband Javier, a local farmer, and three children, Irene (15), Rommel (12) and Ever (10). The family lives in a three room house, with walls made from a mix of cinder block, wood and tin sheets. The three children are all currently studying at school with Irene, the eldest, starting high school in the coming year.

Eulalia experienced back problems and a sore throat stemming from the use of the old stove. Furthermore due to her leaking roof, water would always fall into the fire, reducing its heat and increasing the smoke released.

Eulalia is a stay at home mother, but with her new stove she thinks she “will start selling tortillas, because the stove is very big.” Furthermore due to its design she said “I want to start making bread, something I couldn’t do previously.”

With obvious pride for her “very beautiful” stove Eulalia thanks Habitat, “I never have the capacity to make a stove like this, it will help my family and I tremendously.”