DESCRIPTION AND FUNCTION

Breaking down the work of recovery into manageable pieces will help you move forward.

Interviewee: Tania Rosario, Taller Salud, Loiza

Description: Taller Salud is a feminist, community-based organization whose goal is to improve women’s access to healthcare, reduce violence in community settings, and promote economic development through education and activism. After Hurricane Maria, Taller Salud coordinated medical and psychological assistance brigades for over 2,000 people and distributed food to about 14,000 women and their families during the first three months after the event. Between January and March of 2018, an additional 3,000 people received supplies and primary healthcare based on their needs at the time, while an additional 1,000 people received medical and/or psychological assistance. Over the next six months after the hurricanes hit, our organization and our strategic partners helped an estimated total of 20,000 people in 15 municipalities as part of our emergency response.

INTERVIEW

The fact is that it was really tough for our communities in Loiza, where our offices are located. We were barely starting to handle the damages left in Loiza by hurricane Irma’s passage, which destroyed 300 homes and brought down the water and power systems in the area. Our response to Maria was, in reality, a direct result of the emergency response to Irma. When it came to donations, this helped us have a good idea of what our residents needed to avoid receiving redundant aids when people asked what they could donate. This allowed resources to flow to other communities with different needs from those of our residents. Moreover, this also helped us identify the additional needs that we tend to forget during an emergency, such as reproductive and women’s health care. Our day-by-day interactions involved daily meetings to determine aid categories and cover basic needs based on established priorities, including water, food, medications, medical assistance, clothes, necessities, pest control, materials, and household goods.

After Maria, we also established four lunchrooms in the community, where the women cooked and served about 1,000 meals per day for 8 weeks. Currently, we are working with the Recuperación Justa project, which has two goals: delivering aid supplies and community planning. Fundamentally, this project strives for the community to develop and perform organizational and political training work in the face of a real threat to the recovery discourse. For example, our Loiza community lives near a channel that needs dredging, and we are always told there is no money for it. Meanwhile, financing is readily available when it comes to proposals for housing developments or apartment projects. So we are working for the community and its residents to assume their responsibility and take on a political discourse and identity to tackle the recovery process and everything it entails. That is why we call it Recuperación Justa [fair recovery], not Disaster Recovery.

For more information, visit https://www.tallersalud.com/

(ARECMA, BY ITS SPANISH ACRONYM)

Interviewees: Rosalina Abreu and Susana Sanabria, ARECMA, Inc.

Barrio Mariana’s Recreational and Cultural Association (ARECMA, by its Spanish acronym) is a community-based non-profit organization located in the Mariana neighborhood in Humacao . This organization was created to work and ensure the well-being and comprehensive development of the neighborhood and its residents. Mariana is a mountainous community approximately 6 km away from the town’s urban center. It is divided into three sectors (Mariana I, II, III) and is inhabited by almost 3,200 people. Mariana is a rural community, far from the urban center of town, which is why its residents have always had difficulty to access basic services such as electricity, phone, transportation, and drinking water systems. In light of this scenario, community residents decided to come together and create ARECMA almost 37 years ago, searching for solutions to these immediate needs. Located in the rural area of the municipality of Humacao, the Mariana neighborhood has become one of the most resilient communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. After the emergency, this community has organized different projects in response to the needs of its residents. Among its different projects is ARECMA’s common lunchroom, which served from 150 to 500 lunches for six months. The common kitchen is managed by a group of 7 to 11 women who are community residents. Although this initiative is still in place, it now operates as an exchange, where participants may donate $5.00 or work as volunteers in any of the different projects.

INTERVIEW

The first need we noticed was the lack of space for the community, so we bought the land (Loma de la Niña Mariana) 37 years ago and dedicated it to community projects. It is because of this land that we can now hold activities that have improved the economy and created opportunities for the community. Some examples of these activities are the Festival de la Pana, which has been celebrated for 36 years, summer camps that have been operating for 16 - 17 years, the common kitchen, and other similar community-focused activities. After Maria, it took us a couple of days to be able to leave our homes. Then, people started arriving at La Loma. The ARECMA team cleaned the surrounding areas because everything was destroyed due to the site elevation. The same happened with the community kitchen; one of our members saw what it was and suggested we do it here. We started cooking for ourselves, but then we noticed people needed food, so we decided to cook one meal per day to feed the community members. Occasionally, with what little signal we had, we posted what we needed on social media, and the help came. Little by little, the word spread and people came from neighboring towns, such as Yabucoa, Naguabo, and Juncos; this continued until recently. We used to gather as an organization to decide whether we accepted aid or not, because not everyone came to us with the best of intentions. Other challenges were the lack of communication services (like for most people) and not having a census before the hurricane to account for infrastructure and resident needs. One of our accomplishments was to have a group of dedicated leaders among us, a human network formed by those who stepped up when the community needed them most: the emergence of voluntary service. We did not exactly have a group of volunteers as part our organization. However, volunteers joined because of what ARECMA represented for the community. These volunteers were young and they enthusiastically led most of the projects. By owning a space and proper facilities, we managed to store supplies; by having a kitchen, we were able to feed a lot of people. Media coverage, social media, and the aid received from the diaspora were all extremely important; thanks to them, we received supplies, food, and medicine. Moreover, we have a water cistern and solar panels because of donations received from American companies.

For more information, visit https://arecma.wixsite.com/arecma