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About From Houses to Homes-Guatemala

From Houses to Homes-Guatemala (FHTH) was founded in late 2004 to improve the livelihoods of poor Guatemalans by focusing attention on home reconstruction. Poor housing conditions -- especially in the sometimes frigid highlands -- leads to health problems, safety problems, and the general and rapid decline into the worst poverty imaginable. By investing small amounts of capital and labor into individual families and rebuilding decrepit houses into respectable homes, FHTH provides a well functioning safety net and springboard for lifting families out of desperate conditions.

FHTH depends on gifts from families and individuals in the United States and volunteer labor from all over the world. Founder and Director, Joe Collins, coordinates these efforts. He works with a staff of 4 local Guatemalan employees, led by Project Director Oscar Mejia, to channel this philanthropy to the most needed homes in the highlands of Guatemala.

FHTH is a small organization -- by design. By keeping the US staff and US costs to the absolute minimum -- Joe himself, working with no salary -- FHTH is able to dedicate all monies to where it is needed most: to the poor communities of Guatemala. Through the most firm dedication to efficiency and organization, FHTH is able to rebuild an average of two houses per month at a cost of $1500 per house, including labor, materials, transport, and all other direct and indirect costs.

International Voluntary Service Activities

A typical FHTH home is a small, efficient 12 by 20 foot house made of cinderblock, with a cement floor, metal door and window, and corrugated iron roof. Such a house requires 63 person days to build. In most situations, volunteer teams are made up of four to five individuals who work side by side under the supervision of four Guatemalan FHTH employees and, in most cases, Joe Collins. With a near one to one volunteer to staff ratio, volunteers work under the safest conditions possible and have the most interaction with local Guatemalans.

Since January 2005, FHTH has built 38 homes with the help of 72 volunteers. Over the coming twelve months, FHTH has a goal of building 24 homes. Such an ambitious goal will require a total of 120 volunteers. Based on past projections of volunteer availability, in order to accomplish the twelve month goal of 24 homes, we will need at least 120 volunteers, 50 more volunteers than are currently available to our organization.

Volunteer for Prosperity Opportunities
Number of Opportunities	24 projects; 120 volunteers needed
Geographic Regions	Central America
Health & Prosperity Sectors	Capacity Building; Health; Reform
Types of Opportunities	Support
Average Duration of Projects	7 Days
Volunteer Profile Summary
FHTH volunteers with previous carpentry or building experience always add new ideas to the process of home construction and, based on those ideas, the ways we build our homes are always improving. But most volunteers have little or no building experience. The only real criteria for volunteers are a willingness to work and "get your hands dirty" and a personal interest and commitment to helping the poor. The volunteer will need to pay for all costs including health insurance, travel to and from Guatemala, housing and food while in Guatemala, and a donation of $500.00 to From Houses to Homes-Guatemala to help pay for materials to construct the home.