Guatemalan Housing Initiative

From 2011-2013 we built two buildings in Comolapa, Guatemala both of which were conceived and executed through a partnership with the nonprofit Long Way Home and the founders of ECOHAB.

The mission was to build homes for exemplary members of the community who were stuck in the never ending downward spiral of attempting to survive while renting homes and paying utilities without the financial means to do so.

To fund these builds we established a new method of fundraising where we offered a three week workshop for a donation. This was a new approach to fundraising which encouraged a form of responsible tourism where people help the community and experience a level of cultural immersion unknown to the typical tourist. We quickly had the 40 available spots filled.

Over the course of two three week sessions our team of 40 foreign volunteers and 20 local workers were able to enclose two separate builds for two local families. As the homes provided the families with shelter, power, water, and food the financial burden of these necessities was greatly reduced. Almost overnight the children were able to enroll in school and to stop working all day everyday, alongside their parents, just to meet their basic needs.