DIRECTORY OF ONGOING EFFORTS

Below is a list of organizations and groups that are providing direct support or mobilizing efforts to reach the impacted communities.

Peñuelas

Distributing supplies, hosting “Escuelas sin Banderas” – an outdoor school initiative. Efforts led by long-time. Emotional, psychological and wellness support is requested. Solar lights are a necessity.

Guayama: Francisco G. Bruno Street # 9 Guayama, Puerto Rico (Behind the Cautiño House)

Operating a collection and distribution center in Guayama and are looking for resources to prep natural medicine kits. The group is currently assessing the needs in the Guayama and Arroyo regions.

Urging government officials to postpone school openings until all structures are inspected and emergency plans are shared.

Functioning as a community kitchen in collaboration with Centro de Apoyo de Caguas and collecting food and supplies for distribution.

Collecting supplies and offering entertainment and story reading to children impacted.

Purchasing and distributing essential items to impacted communities.

Focusing their efforts on tending to the needs of families with infants.

Designing and distributing print materials to connect impacted communities to social-emotional and wellness resources and activities.

Campamento Estrella de Guayanilla

Purchased and distributed cooking supplies, food and environmentally friendly utensils and portable kitchen supplies.

Purchased tents at local businesses and rented portable toilets to support communities directly affected.

Operating a community school under the Casa Solidaria Matria project. Provided instructors, lunch and materials.

A campaign focused on creating an alternative debt repayment plan that challenges local and federal governments to reject any cuts to pensions and essential services across the islands.

A public campaign that visibilizes issues impacting vulnerable communities. Using street art, this project seeks to counter propaganda by increasing access to information, transparency and public responsibility.

Guánica: La Laguna, El Oasis, La Luna

Assessed urgent needs of at least 3 camps; have since charged themselves with collecting and distributing supplies. Emotional and psychological support is requested.

Salinas

Hosting organizing efforts in their community center, El Coquí.

Documenting the stories of the people living through – and responding to – recent earthquakes.

Purchased supplies, and invested in professional therapists to bring acupuncture sessions to camps.

Extending their services as community doulas, clinical nurses and social workers through their program, SePARE.

Leading workshops on earthquake readiness and distributing educational materials in three municipalities.

Facilitated healing circles and acupuncture sessions for over 350 individuals.

Facilitating healing circles in activist meeting spaces and sharing breathing and relaxation techniques to release stress, trauma and fatigue. Activated a network of healers, artists, and educators.

Joined leaders to organize, reflect, and distribute supplies where necessary. Their long-term focus is on tackling issues that directly impact Black communities in Puerto Rico by addressing and making visible the historical and pernicious patterns of racial exclusion on the islands.

Organized social workers and organizers to focus on long-term plans of community centers that emerged since earthquakes. Focused on strengthening organizational infrastructures and creating systems to exchange knowledge and information among groups.

Providing transdisciplinary and inclusive juggling workshops as a tool to strengthen and explore meditation, oral narration, and theater to release stress and anxiety.

Planning and executing a series of art and agroecology workshops to introduce practices of healing.

Activating network of artists and allies and hosting workshops and theater presentations in communities directly impacted by past earthquakes.

Guánica

Looking for a structural engineer to inspect school. Supporting with collecting and distributing supplies to families impacted.

Activated its rapid response with educational resources and a hotline for legal support. Since their efforts began, they have also trained and organized close to 180 volunteers lawyers who have provided legal support for close to 100 families in camps, across 5 municipalities.

Mapping community needs to mobilize work groups.

Distributing meals, mobilizing supplies, and providing transportation for volunteers.  

Leading efforts to distribute hygiene products and prioritizing health education in impacted communities.

Providing direct aid to LGBT+ impacted persons.

Creating systems to track and respond to any civil violations .

Hiring and providing stipends to artists and cultural workers who are providing direct support. Hired an organizer to connect artists to camps in need of their skill set and activating their network of peers.

Creating a registry of documentarians and audiovisuals capturing the people’s response from a social justice lens.

Coordinating intergenerational health and wellness brigades bringing empathy, art workshops, meditation, Reiki, herbalism, and atrial acupuncture to impacted regions.

Directed support to earthquake victims: supplies and infra-structure for self-managed camps in southern areas and mountainous regions impacted.

Hired a community organizer to carry out a census of temporary and permanent housing across a handful of municipalities to center the voices of displaced families want in terms of housing.

Providing education, research, and legal advice and representation to impacted families. Addressing housing rights and collective displacement.

Cultivating  comprehensive well-being and emotional containers that aim to reduce stress and anxiety through educational empowerment workshops that focus on addressing sexuality and prevention of abuse and violence.