A year after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island is still rebuilding. And New Haven is still helping.
The latest campaign involves raising $30,000 to enable a hospital in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, to install a microgrid unit. So that the next time a devastating storm hits, the hospital can keep the power on. And keep people alive.
The Progreso Latino Fund, a 15-year-old organization operating out of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, has already donated the first $15,000.
It is looking to raise the other $15,000 in part at an event it’s holding at the Lawn Club on Nov. 15 starting at 5:30 p.m. As with the other efforts the Fund has organized since its founding, the event is part fund-raising, part-consciousness-raising. It will feature talks about Puerto Rico’s progres in rebuilding from Maria, by Luiz, Puerto Rico, Mayor Julia MaríaNazario Fuentes and Puerto Rico Community Foundation President Nelson I. Colón Tarrats.
Click here to register for the event and learn more about Progreso Latino Fund; and here and here to read about some New Haven efforts to pitch in on post-Maria work.
Fund co-founder John Padilla and community activist Caprice Taylor Mendez, who staffs the organization out of the Community Foundation, discussed the upcoming event, the ongoing work of the Fund, and the evolving state of Latino organizing and activism in New Haven, during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
They said the microgrid campaign is part of a broader nationwide campaign to raise $3 million to supply 100 hospitals in Puerto Rico with life-saving equipment. Taylor Mendez called the microgrids a way to “harness technology for people power.”
“People aren’t waiting around for the government” to rebuild the island, Padilla said.
Click on the Facebook Live video to watch the full radio interview.
