Supporting Community Development in Puerto Rico

 As we continue to face financial hardship in the aftermath of multiple natural disasters and austerity measures related to bankruptcy, our community allies remain strong in their efforts to sustain self-reliance. As we previously reported, the community in Guayanés, Yabucoa had been struggling with the current difficulties that affect many impoverished areas in Puerto Rico.

This community had sought our collaboration in sustaining a project around the re imagination of a government-closed school into a community service center. This comes as a response that we understand poses as alternative means of self empowerment and resistance in dire times. Their proposed project aligns with our organization’s vision of working together toward transforming spaces in disuse and abandonment to become alternative for food sovereignty as well as constructing collective actions that can result in better quality of life.

We understand the importance of relying on historical knowledge of agricultural means and the intention of making this knowledge accessible for future generations, so we strive to assist the community in transforming the space into an educational hub. For this reason, we contributed with multiple brigades to transform the abandoned space as per originally determined by their own efforts. This is part of beginning phases of an intent to help recover common spaces that can steward self sustainability, reliance and growth.

We understand that imagining the spaces we want to inhabit is only a part of a long-structured process, but without actual tangible actions, these efforts can be overwhelming and distant. For this reason, we continue to work with Guayanés, and other communities on making the spaces inhabitable, sustainable and self serving, long from being public nuances. During this last trimester our brigades continued to help recover, paint and clean the rescued school with the intention for the spaces to be part of a positive community outlook for the future.

With your ongoing financial assistance we can strive to continue the efforts to help this project become even more sustainable.