Susana is a single mother raising her three boys alone. The first year after her husband abandoned them, they moved to the town of Iquitos, Peru and lived in a lean-to, made of tree branches and a tarp.

“When we used to use live in the lean-to, the wind blew it down and we all got wet. We woke up shivering from the cold,” recalled Susana.

Eventually she moved to a piece of land given to her by her brother. There she built a shanty made of scraps of wood and cast-off metal sheets. “I suffered a lot with my boys,” she said. “When the rains came with strong winds we felt the house move. The roof made noises and my sons got scared and cried.”

“Sometimes it rained hard and when the wind blew, the rain came in and we got wet,” said 7-year-old Ezequiel.

Susana did her best to improve the hous

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