Puerto Rico Update – February 2019

After Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria -- leaving residents desperate for food, water, power, fuel, and medicine -- you raised $150,000 in a single day to help our fellow Americans through this crisis. Together Rising funded an additional $100,000 in order to provide $250,000 to boots-on-the-ground organizations offering emergency relief.

Together Rising funded $250,000 to Direct Relief because it was the first organization to bring medicine to Puerto Rico when the commercial supply chain completely broke down. Your donations were used to purchase and ship medical kits to Puerto Rico, equipping doctors and nurses with the resources they desperately needed -- including insulin, antibiotics, and anti-infectives.

That help is still in Puerto Rico today and will be there for many years as the recovery continues.

Thanks to your donations, including an additional $20,000 given a few months ago, your help has expanded to include other critical health interventions including: mobile medical units all around the island, writing and implementing of Emergency Response Plans for health centers, ensuring maintenance of vaccination programs, and equipping health centers with reliable communication devices.

You also helped install solar panels and back up batteries in health centers across the island. Puerto Rico has 3000 hours of sunlight per year. After Hurricane Maria the island was without power for many months. With the solar paneling, health centers will now always have power and not have to close their doors during most critical times.

THANK YOU. These relief projects are made possible by our generous recurring donors who trust Together Rising with monthly gifts ($5 and up!), giving us the ability to respond immediately when crises strike, and allowing us to keep helping our brothers and sisters in crisis even when the news cycles move on. Please consider joining our recurring donors, TEAM LOVE, at togetherrising.org/give.