Making a better home for our sponsored children

Bruce and I are screening in our patio. It will be a simple 14 x 14 room: a screened area built onto the existing concrete floor, with a shingled roof and two doors that close. When finished, it will be bigger, sturdier, and more secure than most Guatemalan homes.

Yayra with her mother

Yayra (pictured above) is a part of our sponsorship program. Her home has one wall of corrugated aluminum, the other three walls are made of plastic sheeting. Tree branches and stumps hold up the walls and the roof, which is half plastic sheeting, half aluminum.

Like our patio, it has no running water or toilet facilities. Yayra will share an outhouse style toilet with nearby families, and a water spigot when the water is running. Otherwise they walk to the nearest functioning spigot. My patio will have electricity, theirs has a string of light bulbs that can be plugged into a battery. Like us, they cook on a fire pit of sorts, except that theirs burns wood which releases smoke directly into their home, while mine uses propane and is smokeless.

Interestingly, to rebuild Yayra’s house into a decent quality living space costs only $1,335, while to screen in our patio cost…well, more than ten times that. There is nothing wrong with having a screened porch at my house, but I see how much further my investment can go in Guatemala.

Tios for Hope. Inc. wants to help families like Yayra’s beyond what our sponsorship funds can provide. Many of the children we sponsor need safe affordable housing. We are doing the groundwork to partner with a building ministry in Guatemala, and hope to schedule construction trips next year. If you are interested in helping Tios with projects like this, please email me at D’ann.renner@tiosforhope.org or visit us at tiosforhope.org to learn more.

D’Ann Renner

President, Tios for Hope