Change the lives of 200 Mayan Families

      'Adelantando' translates as moving forward or advancing.  Our floor project marches forward with great success. Replacing dirt floors with easy to maintain cement floors continues to be an essential and extremely cost effective help for the community.   We at GHA have laid well over a hundred of these floors now in San Pablo La Laguna, a town with no tourist industry, where a head-of-family is fortunate to snag a job in coffee production for which the pay is less than $4/day.   This year, while a major drought is making survival even more precarious, a cement floor lessens the likelihood that a child will be sharing their small rations with parasites.

       GHA also builds entire homes for families living in the most dire situations. This week we break ground for our 24th home, one built with natural materials....cane, cypress, mud, pine needles, lime.   They are beautiful homes and well insulated...a far cry from the leaky hovels pieced together.  We continue to use cement for the floors of these homes, not having yet found a more natural alternative which wouldn't require expensive upkeep.

       We have recently created a new model for home ownership.   The recipient family is required to work on 3 homes to earn their own, with no other financial input.   These are families which would suffer with any financial input imposed.   In fact, we gift them a quintal (100#) of dried corn in order to assure they are nourished during each build.

      Note in the photos the student volunteers from Walking Tree Travel.   What a great experience for youths, to witness situations outside of their culture.   We welcome you, too, as a volunteer for either a floor project or a whole house.

      And we thank you for your support.