A Home Is Not Just A House

It looked so modest once our builders were finished.

Seventeen days of construction labor, weeks of FFF administrative paperwork and months of fundraising amounted to a small structure tucked into the mountains above Guineales, Guatemala. The house had a concrete floor, an intact roof, doors that lock, and best of all; it had a family that needed it.

Here is the hidden story in these seemingly benign photos.

When writing about the work we do as an organization, I look through the lens of our supporters. I see the same photos you do, but with a vastly different perspective. Our board knows the stories behind each image and the hope that each family holds for their newly donated house. We understand the deeply entrenched economic disparity that holds our participants with a firm and unyielding grip. The kind of poverty that leaves parents in the trenches of earning a few dollars a day, never enough to see beyond tomorrow, to feed or educate children, or to hope to own a house. Hopelessness breeds apathy, the kind of numbness that extinguishes relationships, even with oneself. How, then, can emotionally stunted, malnourished and impoverished parents hope to raise capable children?

Here is the hidden story in these seemingly benign pictures. See the man in the left-hand corner (striped shirt, top photo). He showed up every day to haul blocks, clear the land for the new house, and mix concrete. He is a humble man, a loving husband, and dedicated to the three children you see here. For the last eleven years, Manuel has been a day laborer in the fields of Guatemala, bringing home a few dollars a day when work was available. It was never enough: the family occupied a relative’s one-room home with seventeen other family members to feed. The pandemic-induced economic crisis added intolerable tension to the household, and Manuel was forced to temporarily evacuate his family during episodes of abuse by hostile relatives. Sleeping outside was preferable to trying to keep his children safe in his mother-in-law’s house.

Statistics gathered by the World Bank indicate that fifty percent of Guatemala’s population exist on less than $5/day. Those statistics are pre-pandemic; one can assume with a surety that the numbers are grimmer today. Without geographical and economic access to medical care, families grow while financial resources diminish.

It can be reasonably argued that a father who feels hopeless about providing for his family is more easily prone to despair and disengagement. Manuel is known in his village as a man of principle. His family is only the second married couple FFF has selected out of hundreds of female-headed households of Guatemalan participants. Manuel’s request for a donated house was sincere, his story compelling and the need was urgent.

Manuel is now a father with a basic but life-changing house to call home for his family. His children will be free of physical and emotional trauma. The parasitic load of living in soil will be reduced now that concrete is underfoot instead of dirt. Doors will lock, the rain will remain outdoors, beds will stay dry, and even better, hope will grow in this house that will now be home.