Elba and her husband, Jose, live on a piece of rented land near Antigua with their daughter Rosa Angelica and Elba's brother. Elba works as a cleaning woman Monday through Friday, 8-4, and Jose is a bricklayer. Elba and her husband only have a first grade education. They make about $156 per month.

Their daughter, Rosa Angelica, is ten years old and cannot hear or speak. She attends a special school for the deaf for three and a half hours each afternoon during the school year. She has also attended speech therapy for six months at Common Hope, although she uses mostly sign language to communicate. Rosa is an outgoing, confident, and animated child. She can write her name and other words. She loves to communicate with people and show them her schoolwork, communion pictures, and dolls. She is also excited about their new house.

Elba talked with her Common Hope social worker, Juan, after she saw other houses Common Hope helped people build. She wanted a bigger area for her family to live in. Their previous house was made of corrugated tin and stood where the new house now stands. The old house had no windows, a low roof, dirt floor, and lots of cracks for breezes to sneak in. The new house has a movable concrete floor, fibrolit walls, two windows, and a door.

They also received a pila, an outdoor sink for washing clothes and dishes, as the old one was cracked and leaking. To earn the house and pila, Elba and her brother worked 246 hours at our Antigua site, cleaning walls, cutting grass, collecting garbage, and pruning flowers and trees. They completed all the hours in one month, which is an impressive accomplishment! Only three months passed from the time Elba talked with Juan about the house until the day it was constructed! She is a hardworking woman and very ambitious. She also has plans to earn a bed, table, more corrugated tin, and building materials.

Elba and her husband said the new house is very nice and that they like it a lot. They are proud of their accomplishments and the improvements it means for their family.

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