Five communities participated in the Puerto Rico Community Preparedness and Resiliency Initiative forum.
San Juan, April 3, 2019 - Five communities located in the municipalities of Caguas, Río Grande, San Juan, Utuado and Las Marías will be transformed into resilient communities. Grande, San Juan, Utuado, and Las Marías will be transformed into resilient communities future natural disasters through the design and execution of resilience plans. resilience plans. For the development of these plans, the following stakeholders have been convened stakeholders from the participating communities, such as committed citizens, non-profit organizations and schools. organizations and schools. As part of the process, participants attended today's Puerto Rico Community Preparedness and Resiliency Initiative, The Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR), Education Development Center (EDC), Regional Education Laboratory Northeast & Islands (REL-NEI) and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). The initiative is a joint response to the community challenges faced in Puerto Rico as a result of in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
During the meeting, the communities, together with their stakeholders, shared lessons learned and experiences and identified solutions that they identified solutions that they carried out in the past hurricane. The sharing serves as a platform for each community to develop its action plan focused on community preparedness and focused on community preparedness and risk mitigation. During During the development of the action plans, they will have the support and accompaniment of UH Public Health of Public Health students from the UPR. The FCPR will consider proposals from these five communities with the potential to provide them with economic support for the implementation of their plans. implementation of their plans. The plans must be implemented within a 12-month period. months.
The institutions promoting this initiative understand that, with collective commitment and from the community base, it is possible to promote resilient communities to face future adversities, resilient communities can be promoted to face future adversities. This was evidenced by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, in September 2017, when nonprofits and community-based organizations became the first rescuers to arrive at the first responders to reach their communities, successfully providing emergency humanitarian aid. emergency humanitarian aid.
“We are convinced that a very powerful strength and resilience community emanates a very powerful strength and resilience. We It is up to us to give them a boost so that they can structure their intervention proactively and have the proactively and have the resources to do so. This is an opportunity for organizations, schools and committed citizens to articulate their collective response to a future disaster. their collective response to a future disaster,” mentioned Dr. Nelson I. Colón Tarrats, executive president of the FCPR.
Participants in the event were: Residents of the communities Las Carolinas, in Caguas; La Vega, in Rio Grande; Tras Talleres, Santurce, in San Juan; Mameyes, in Utuado; and Bucarabones, in Las Marías. Marias. In addition, the non-profit organizations Plenitud, Brigadas Brigadas Salubristas, El Puente-Enlace de Acción Climática, the Centro de Conservacion del Paisaje, and the Conservation Center, and the El Otoao (Otoao) Primary Health and Socioeconomic Development Development Services Corporation (COSSAO). Also in attendance were university students Manuel Heredia, Utuado; Katrina Wiegand, Santurce; Janet Forestier, Las Marías; Celines Acevedo, Las Carolinas; and Yoshimarie Méndez, Las Marías. Yoshimarie Méndez, La Vega.
“In my community we were not prepared. People kind of fell asleep in that ‘it comes, it comes, but it never comes.’ When When it came, it was a tremendous paranoia... If we hadn't had a small saw, we would still be cutting sticks, we would still be cutting sticks. And in our community most of them are older people. Now we are preparing ourselves so that this won't happen again,” shared Madeline happen again," shared Madeline M. Figueroa of La Vega, in Rio Grande, during the panel on the panel Experiences with Hurricane María.
“Mary taught us that we are the ones who have to help ourselves. that we have to help ourselves. This mentality of waiting for the other to help me, we have to give it up. We have to roll up our sleeves and start working,” said Miguel Romero of Las Carolinas, in Caguas.
Some of the challenges identified by communities in the aftermath of the hurricanes are related to: road access, communications, potable water, debris communications, drinking water, debris collection and care for the elderly. care for the elderly. They also identified the following needs: creation of a strategic plan plan, space for food and first aid, and access to road cleaning equipment, among others. access to road cleaning equipment, among others. The event also included the participation of a panel of experts panel of experts who spoke about lessons learned from an environmental perspective. environmental perspective. The participants were Dr. Fernando Abruña, Ingrid M. Vilá Biaggi, Dr. Elvia Meléndez-Ackerman, and Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera. Herrera. “Personal survival is not enough, it must be communal.” stressed Abruña.
In addition to the exchange of experiences and knowledge and knowledge, participants, guided by a working document, began to identify potential solutions to problems related to natural potential solutions to problems related to natural events. The plans are plans are expected to be presented during the summer.
The forum is held prior to the quarterly meeting of the REL-NEI Board of Directors of the REL-NEI Board of Directors, which begins tonight in San Juan. The event will feature Dr. Colón Tarrats event will feature Dr. Colón Tarrats as the keynote speaker, a participation that will be broadcast today at 7:45 p.m. via FCPR's Facebook Live: @FundacionComunitaria. The presentation will have as its theme A conversation about restoration work in Puerto Rico.
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