The island of Puerto Rico is in the dark. Virtually 100 percent of its citizens are without power. It’s been a little over a week since Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 hurricane, struck the island, and crews are struggling to dispense provisions to desperate residents. Citizens are dealing with a humanitarian crisis as millions are lacking the basics; even water is becoming a scarce resource.
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the US located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. The mayor of Puerto Rico’s largest city, Carmen Yulin Cruz, has been the face of the turmoil that the city is in. Social media sites have been plastered with photos and videos of her pleading for help for her people.
After hurricane Irma made landfall on the island, citizens barely had two weeks to prepare before hurricane Maria—the worst natural disaster the Island has seen in decades—struck them once more. People on the Island are without means of communication, with cell towers down and nowhere to charge their electronic devices. Gustavo Velez, Junior at Florida State University, whose father lives on the island, was unable to learn of his whereabouts until days after the storm. “It’s devastating. My family is going through their worst times in over 60 years. Everyone says things keep getting better, but they are not. It’s survival.” He is not alone in this. Millions of people in the US have family members in Puerto Rico, and not all of them are lucky enough to get into contact with them.
The desperation in Mayor Cruz’s pleads are heartbreaking “I will do what I never thought I was going to do: begging. Begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy.” As bystanders hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Puerto Rico, it’s normal to feel helpless, but there are active steps that we can take to lend a helping hand.
Courtesy: PBS
Most organizations are asking for monetary donations rather than supplies, so they can have more leeway when it comes to the resources that they dispense, as well as for how quickly they can reach it.
Here are some places where you can donate!
–United for Puerto Rico (spearheaded by the First Lady of Puerto Rico)
–UNICEF –Center for Popular Democracy –Hispanic Federation’s “Unidos” page –International Medical Corps
-Former U.S. presidents have expanded their One America Appeal to include recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
–Catholic Relief Services –Americares –Save the Children, which focuses specifically on the needs of families and their children
–Global Giving has a $2 million goal for victims of Hurricane Maria
Another way to help is to spread awareness and to not let these stories fizzle out into the sea of news we are bombarded with on a daily basis. Nowadays we have so much access to everything going on in the world, every day there is something new taking over our timelines. It is up to us as young, conscious individuals to weed out what’s truly important. Though the speculation of which Kardashian/Jenner might be pregnant seems fascinating to some, there are people in this world dying, who need to be spotlighted if not by the media, then by intelligent people like you.