The local communities around the farm live in extreme poverty. People live in very simple wooden or cement block huts, with corrugated aluminum roofs. In most kitchens, women prepare tortillas and beans on open fireplaces. As a result, women and their children suffer from respiratory and skin-related illnesses. The community depends on firewood to cook, but the region is experiencing firewood scarcity, meaning that women are forced to walk long distances to search for this necessary resource.

Additionally, communities have limited access to health services, which has brought back preventable illnesses such as salmonella, typhoid fever, whooping cough and tuberculosis, among others. Only one in eight families has a functioning bathroom.

Our main goal is to respond to the most serious challenges with ecological solutions that adapt to the needs of each family.

With your help, in 2021 we will build 15 ‘dry’ bathrooms and 20 smoke-free, wood-saving stoves in El Carmelito. Improving sanitary infrastructure in the home will ensure basic levels of hygiene and health in the community.

This will be a pilot project, one that we will follow closely and consistently tweak and improve along the way in order to ensure its proper implementation. Once this happens, we will continue to share this infrastructure with other neighboring communities.