Access to clean drinking water should not end after the first installation.

That is why IEP launched the Water Filter Replacement Program, a new initiative designed to ensure families continue receiving safe, drinkable water beyond the original two-year lifespan of their filters.

This program focuses on replacing expired filters in homes previously served through our water filter installations, helping families maintain long-term access to clean water and protecting the health benefits created through the initial program.

Through this effort, IEP was able to reach 50 homes, providing families with replacement filters and continued access to safer drinking water for their daily lives.

The Water Filter Replacement Program reflects IEP’s commitment to sustainable impact, not only delivering immediate solutions, but ensuring those solutions continue improving health and wellbeing for years to come.

Before a family receives a smoke-free stove and water filter, our team carries out a socioeconomic study in the community to ensure that support reaches those who need it most. This process begins with conversations and home visits, where we listen to each family’s story and learn about their daily reality. During these visits, we observe living conditions such as access to basic resources, the structure of the home, and whether cooking takes place inside sleeping areas.

Some households have televisions or motorcycles, while others live in extreme poverty, without proper floors or separate kitchen spaces. By understanding each family’s situation, we are able to determine whether they qualify for the program. These visits are not inspections, but moments of connection and trust. They allow us to make fair and informed decisions while honoring the dignity of every family we meet.

This careful selection process ensures that our cookstove program is both responsible and impactful. It allows us to focus our efforts where they will make the greatest difference—improving health, safety, and quality of life for families living in the most vulnerable conditions.

Nearby lives Doña Célida Evanely Ajquijay, a young woman preparing to welcome a new life. At the time of our visit, she was eight months pregnant and facing significant challenges. Without a kitchen of her own, she was forced to rent access to a neighbor’s kitchen in order to prepare meals—an arrangement that frequently caused stress and discomfort. 

Her husband works in agriculture, and she contributes to the family income through weaving and embroidery. However, her pregnancy limited her ability to continue working, deepening the family’s financial vulnerability at a critical moment. 

Determined to provide for his family, her husband built a small makeshift shelter and installed a open fire stove to cook . While it offered minimal functionality, smoke exposure remained a serious risk, especially for a pregnant mother and a soon-to-be newborn. 

Being selected as a beneficiary of the improved cookstove brought overwhelming relief and gratitude. For this young family, the impact will be immediate and lasting: 

• A healthier pregnancy 

• A safer home environment for a newborn 

• A foundation of dignity and stability for the future 

Why Your Support Matters 

An improved cookstove is not simply infrastructure—it is a life-changing intervention. 

Each stove provides: 

• Cleaner indoor air, reducing respiratory illness 

• Improved maternal and child health 

• Greater safety and dignity for women 

• Long-term resilience for vulnerable families 

Your investment creates meaningful impact far beyond the kitchen. It safeguards health, strengthens families, and builds resilient communities. 

Your Impact Starts Here 

By supporting the Homes Pillar, you help transform smoke-filled kitchens into spaces of safety, warmth, and hope. 

One stove can change a life. 

Your generosity can change a community. 

In San Antonio Palopó, our team has been working behind the scenes to prepare for the upcoming smoke-free stoves and water filter installations. Before volunteers arrive, we transport all the stove materials directly to the community, delivering each piece ahead of time so that installation days can move quickly and safely. By bringing the materials in advance, we reduce the physical burden on volunteers and ensure that every family’s stove can be built efficiently in their home.

This preparation is a step we take every time we install stoves. It reflects our commitment to planning with care and respect—for the families who will receive a stove and for the volunteers who will help build them. Each delivery is part of a larger effort to create healthier homes by reducing indoor smoke and improving cooking conditions. Long before the first stove is built, the work of transformation has already begun through preparation, teamwork, and shared purpose.

In the rural highlands of Panabajal, Comalapa, cooking is not just a daily task—it is a matter of health, dignity, and survival. For many families, preparing a meal still means breathing toxic smoke for hours each day inside fragile homes. Yet, through your support, this reality can change. 

A Life Spent in Smoke – Doña Ofelia’s Story 

Doña Ofelia Pol Coló has lived in the same modest home since the day she married. Within its cracked walls, she raised her children and built a life rooted in perseverance and love. Today, although her children have families of their own, she and her husband remain—aging alongside a house that reflects decades of sacrifice. 

Her kitchen bears the weight of years of hardship. An old adobe stove, broken and barely functional, fills the room with thick smoke every time she cooks. Soot covers the walls and ceiling. For years, Doña Ofelia has endured burning eyes, chronic coughing, and constant discomfort—silent challenges she accepted as part of everyday life. 

When she learned about the Improved Cookstove Project, she felt something she hadn’t allowed herself in years: hope. 

For Doña Ofelia, a clean cookstove is not a luxury. It is the opportunity to breathe safely, cook without fear, and live her remaining years with dignity. Yet, with extremely limited household income, saving for home improvements has never been an option. Every resource is devoted to covering basic needs. 

Your support turns her hope into a real and lasting transformation. 

Last week, Team Hope — our largest service trip of the year — brought together doctors, nurses, and volunteers from around the world to serve families in Guatemala. Over the course of four days, lives were transformed through access to health care, surgery, and healthier homes.

Together, we accomplished:


• 154 life-changing surgeries

• 997 patients were seen in our medical clinics

• 126 families received smoke-free stoves and clean water filters
  

Every number represents a powerful story: a mother cooking without smoke filling her home, a parent receiving long-awaited surgery, and a family finally gaining access to safe drinking water.


We are deeply grateful to every volunteer, partner, and supporter who made this possible.