Creating Healthy Homes in Mocolic Xot Bajo

Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption invites you to join our 5th Annual Holiday Giving Back Project in conjunction with Behrhorst Partners for Development (BPD).  This year the project supports 75 rural Guatemalan families living in Mocolic Xot Bajo which is located near Patzun, Guatemala.  When fully funded, this project will provide a comprehensive basic infrastructure package creating healthy homes for each family.  Creating a healthy home consists of completing a village water project as well as installing a stove, latrine, and grey water filter in each of the 75 homes.

So how can you help?  The cost to implement the basic infrastructure package is $75 per person.  How amazing that just $6.25 per month would meet that cost!  To sponsor the cost of a family is $450.  Please consider making a donation to fund individuals or an entire family!

Here’s the impact of your donation:

• Women and children spend 2-4 hours a day carrying water from contaminated sources.  BPD will work with a village water project committee as well as the municipality to design and install a spring fed water filtration system that runs from a main tank in the village to individual homes.  Villagers provide all manual labor to dig the lines to each home.

• Clean latrines go a long way toward eliminating diseases that plague rural people, especially children.  The vented latrine removes bad odors as well as improves sanitation conditions for the family and the villages.  The family commits to the digging of the latrine pit and with your gift BPD provides all materials necessary for construction as well as education on the maintenance of the latrine.

• A vented stove makes an immeasurable impact on the family’s lives.  The most impressive differences are significantly less smoke and CO in the home leading to longer life expectancy and better child development as well as decreased risk of serious burns.  Long term environmental benefits include 70% less wood consumption per household.  The women of the households gain the equivalent of two work days per week because they need to haul much less wood; this means more time for family and economic opportunities. 
 
• Gray water filters collect water as runoff after it has been used for washing and then filters the soap and grease such that the residual water flows downhill to irrigate trees and other plants. 

The FTGA Holiday Giving Back Program will focus for the first time on the needs of one village to improve the lives of all villagers as a package.  The village is ready and willing to start working as soon as funding is secured.  Please consider putting the villagers of Mocolic Xot Bajo one donation closer to starting work on basic infrastructure needs in their village to create healthy homes!  You can even take part in a BPD tour in early August 2010 which will include inauguration ceremonies in this village!

To see more about how BPD works with families in Guatemala, view this video.