From Houses to Homes (FHTH) aims to strengthen community harmony in highland Guatemala by building lasting, healthy homes, improving access to health care and education, and inspiring participation between the poor and civil society. From Houses to Homes is a New Jersey-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in September 2004 to build homes and improve the lives of the rural poor in Guatemala. FHTH is currently funded through private donations, corporate giving, and contributions from private foundations. Nearly 100% of all donations go toward building homes and providing health and education to revitalize disadvantaged communities in Guatemala.
Home Building: In the poorest areas of highland Guatemala, improper building materials, a lack of appropriate resources, and unsustainable architectures turn houses to foul rubble in the blink of an eye. Many families live in makeshift homes that are constructed of nothing more than cornstalk or cardboard walls with dirt floors. Decrepit housing quashes hope, fuels health problems, and destroys family unity. From Houses to Homes-Guatemala, Inc., recognizes that flourishing homes and thriving communities begin with improving actual home structure. From Houses to Homes works with the poorest of Guatemalan families to build or rebuild houses making them strong, safe, culturally appropriate, and affordable to maintain. These homes become the foundation for a community building process.
Each home costs approximately $1,500. Their homes are 13 x 19 foot homes, made entirely of concrete block, with cement floor, corrugated metal roof, with skylight, a metal door with lock, and a metal-framed window with glass. The home is stuccoed and painted inside and out with colors chosen by the home owner. A plaque with your name will be placed on the home honoring your donation.
How They Select Their Families: There are over one million corn stalk shacks in Guatemala. Some communities consist entirely of these provisional houses which sometime include additional scavenged resources, like corrugated metal siding, scraps of wood, or even plastic bags as siding. All houses have dirt floors, occasionally a bed, and most with leaky roofs. Staff at FHTH try to visit every family three or more times over several months at unannounced times to see how the families are actually living. The only requirement to receive a home is that they are very poor and can prove ownership of the property. They then try to select the families with the largest number of members so there will be a benefit to the largest number of people. A single mother with five or more children will head the list. During their first five years of operation, they have averaged six members per home. This means that FHTH has provided a safe home to approximately 1,680 people.
Health and Education: While home building is their main focus, they recognize that houses just remain structures and communities remain collections of impoverished families without proper health and education. In addition to homes, they believe that providing poor families with better access to healthcare and education most effectively helps address community deterioration in highland Guatemala. From Houses to Homes makes health and education possible by subsidizing health care costs and school registration fees. While they can’t combat this problem in its entirety, they try to assist the neediest families in the highlands.
J. Brian Moran II Clinic in Pastores: FHTH has just purchased a piece of property to build a medical clinic in Pastores. Janeth de Reyes, the Director of the Cambiando Vidas School in Pastores, was kind enough to recruit her son, Emilio, to design the clinic. She also introduced them to her son, Edgar, who is a Doctor to guide us through this project with important information about the community and medical needs of the Guatemalan people. We are extremely grateful to Janeth for her support and guidance.
To learn more about FHTH, please visit their website.
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