by Beth Backen, Shipping and Receiving Coordinator

In May 2006, Peace Coffee took a delegation to Guatemala to participate in Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program. The idea was prompted by our concern about the effects of Hurricane Stan on our trading partners in Guatemala. While we waited for news that was slow to come, we decided we wanted to do something more this year, so we began to plan a trip to build some houses in Guatemala. It was a unique opportunity for those of us who went on the trip. We had a chance to learn firsthand about housing issues in one of the producer countries we partner with – an experience that will certainly be on my mind as I think about how to keep improving Fair Trade practices. During our stay we worked on two houses, building walls of one, pouring the foundation and starting the walls of the other. I was delighted to receive an envelope in the mail the other day with photos of the families in their completed houses.

Arturo Fernando Perez and his wife Alfa and their four kids had been living in a house with two bedrooms and a kitchen. The wooden walls didn’t keep the wind and rain out very well. The kitchen, where they cooked on a wood stove, was poorly ventilated and filled with smoke. The kids, Debora (17), Tony (15), Adelita (13), and Joahida (10) all slept in the same bedroom, and didn’t have a good place to do their homework. Arturo and Alfa were renting the house, but did not have the protection of a lease, so their landlord could raise the rent or evict them without notice. Owning their home is a much more stable situation for them.

 Habitat houses are built with the efforts of a professional builder, the labor of the family, and other volunteers, such as the Peace Coffee crew that went to Guatemala. Arturo and his fifteen-year-old son were hard at work on their house. We volunteers had a lot to learn, but with the instructions of the builder and the family, we were able to make a big dent on some time-consuming tasks. The letter we recently received from Habitat included a quotation from Tony: "We feel so much better now in our new home, now it’s not so cold. We are so much more comfortable! We have so much more privacy and this house has much more space to do our homework. I want to say how grateful we are to the group that came to help us build. They worked really hard and we never would have finished the house so fast without them."

To qualify for a Habitat for Humanity house, families have to own the land on which they will build, and have to demonstrate an income level that will allow them to make the modest payments on the house. Arturo is a mason and Alfa cooks and cleans for a family; both work eight-hour days six days a week. Even with the long workweek, they could not have afforded to build their house without the help of Habitat for Humanity.

Martha Edilia Escot Orozco’s husband passed away six years ago. Martha earns her living washing clothes for other families. Her seventeen-year-old daughter, Irma, also contributes to the family income working as a sales clerk in a store. Martha also has an eleven-year-old daughter, Sonia, who is in school.

Martha’s previous home was only one room plus a kitchen. It had no windows, and was therefore quite dark inside. Like many homes in Guatemala, this one was made of adobe. Although adobe is a common building material, it affords little protection from the weather. When Hurricane Stan hit in October 2005, the frightened family had to prop boards in the house to keep the roof from falling in. As the rains continued, the family had to flee the house. The water level in the house rose to three feet. At the end of the storm, Martha’s home had sustained too much damage for the family to stay there. She and her two daughters had to stay with Martha’s father in half of one of his rooms. We worked alongside Martha’s father and brother while helping to build her house. Her brother was the professional builder on that site, and was working on Martha’s house before going to his job in the afternoon.

Now Martha and her daughters are living in a brand new home on the same site as the old house, right next to her father’s house. Both houses we worked on have two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room/dining room, and a bathroom. The Habitat for Humanity homes are built of cement blocks, reinforced with rebar that runs both vertically and horizontally through the blocks. The families that live in Habitat houses have safety not only from wind and rain, but also earthquakes. The houses surrounding the site where Martha’s house stands are a testament to the strength of the cement block and rebar construction. Those houses were also in the path of Hurricane Stan, yet they remained intact due to the better materials with which they were built.

Martha said, “I first of all wanted to thank God for my house, but also to the volunteers who came to help build my house. The construction was so much quicker with the help of the team. I don’t have words to describe how grateful we are for all they did. I am very happy and I never thought my dream of building a house would come true. We feel a lot safer and we have so much more space now. We thank God that they helped us and thank you Habitat.”

Facts about Habitat for Humanity Guatemala:

* Cost of one house: US $2822

* As of March 2006, Habitat for Humanity Guatemala had constructed 20,800 homes, providing shelter for 120,000 Guatemalans.

* In 2006, Habitat hopes to build 3000 homes in Guatemala.

* The Perez home was built in 20 days

* The Orozco home was built in one month

For more information, visit www.Habitat.org

(Back to Headlines)