Puerto Rico Needs Us

I had a few more blog posts ready to go about Puerto Rico and how much I enjoyed my time there.  Given what’s currently going on, I feel pretty weird about even writing them.  To be honest, I don’t feel that I know enough about Puerto Rico’s history with the United States to adequately address the current issue at hand.  However, any chance I can take to get in America’s ass and call it on it’s bs, trust, I’m going to follow up.  What’s going on in Puerto Rico (and all throughout the Caribbean) right now is devastating.  The lack of care and assistance from the United States, while completely unsurprising given the bum that’s in office, is also completely unacceptable.  While, I could totally take this time to go in on America, I’m going to take the solution oriented approach and provide us with ways that we can all help:

1. Donate $

This is an obvious one and probably the best way to assist.  Some places you can donate $ to are:

• Concilio: Concilio is a Philadelphia based organization that serves as an advocate for the Latino Community. It’s mission is to “cultivate the strength and resilience of children and families, improve the quality of life in our community, and maintain our community’s heritage, history, and culture.”
• Unidos por Puerto Rico: This initiative is a collaboration between Beatriz Rosselló, First Lady of Puerto Rico, and the private sector to provide aid and support to the island for the damage caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
• Hispanic Federation: The Hispanic Federation teamed up with politicians in NY to launch “‘Unidos’: A Hurricane Relief Fund for Hurricane Maria Victims in Puerto Rico.”  This effort will give 100% of proceeds to hurricane relief and recovery efforts.
• Gofundme: Gofundme has gathered all the different campaigns collecting donations via their platform on one page. 

2. Donate supplies

If you’re more comfortable buying goods and sending them directly to places here are some orgs accepting supplies:

• Unidos por Puerto Rico: In addition to cash, they are accepting construction and emergency supplies.
• National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD): The website says cash is best however they are trying to coordinate efforts for those who wish to donate other things.

I feel if you are able cash to donate, do that.  If you really want to donate supplies (or both), you would have to wait until they get a system going to adequately collect and store goods.

3. Volunteer

VOAD (as mentioned above) is also coordinating efforts for those that wish to donate their manpower here.

4. Educate yourself on Puerto Rico’s history

A lot of people (Americans) are not even aware (or weren’t before this hurricane) that Puerto Rico is a part of the US.  I suggest hitting the google and seeing what’s up.  Educate yourself on the colony that is Puerto Rico.  Not only will you be more informed on the island itself, you’ll understand even more why the US is SLACKING big time on it’s relief efforts.  My friend Rafael shared this excellent FB post of someone breaking down the current devastation in PR which can be found here.

5. Don’t stop discussing this

Often, these things die down after a few days or weeks.  It’s estimated that PR will be without power for MONTHS.  Multiple places throughout the Caribbean are suffering from the devastating effects of these recent hurricanes.  There’s also still folks from Houston and the earth quake in Mexico that are still in recovery.  Let’s keep the momentum going to do our part to assist those in need.

If you know of any other ways to assist or credible organizations to donate to, please leave a comment!