Homes for Homeless Families in Guatemala

Mario works as a day laborer picking coffee, fruits and vegetables, whatever is in season at the time. This is very sporadic work and he often finds himself without work for days at a time making it difficult for him to support his family. He and his wife Tomasa share the responsibility of providing for the family. Tomasa sells weavings that she has made to help support her family. She spends many hours weaving each product but earns very little for each one, about Q200 per item. She does not have repeat customers so she often has to go out looking for people to buy her products.

Of the three children in the family, Julia, Mayra and Luis, only Julia goes to school because the other two are still very young. The family lives in a house made out of sheets of metal and corn stalks. There are even parts that are made out of a tent-like material. Because the structure that the family is living in lacks protection from the rain and cold the children often get sick and Mario and Tomasa have little money to pay for their medical expenses.

Mario and Tomasa do not have money to pay for materials to improve their home. As a result the family often gets sick when the weather is bad due to the cold and dampness. Because of this the God’s Child Project helped them by building them a new home so that the family, especially the children, would have a safe and healthy place to live and be protected from the elements so that they would not get sick as often.