What & Why We Build Choosing Recipients Recipients’ Responsibilities Where We Build

It is estimated that there are well over a million houses in Guatemala cobbled together with cornstalks, cane, and scavenged materials. During the wet months - from June to November - wind driven rain blows through the wall, drips from the roofs, and often turns dirt floors into parasitic muck. Of course lattice-like walls provide little privacy and no security – leaving a family’s belongings subject to theft as well.

The first slide show demonstrates how the first 20 GHA homes were built. Block building is ubiquitous in Latin America. In late 2015 GHA chose to change to a more environmentally sensitive method, as shown in the second slideshow, utilizing local natural resources: cypress, cane, pine needles, mud, pumice and lime....a method called 'bajareque', aka wattle and daub. Initially we used bamboo for framing, but have moved to cypress which is less apt to attract insects.