Disaster Recovery- Elders, San Antonio Puerto Rico

            Even though, this period has been very difficult because of the Covid-19 pandemic Proyecto La Nueva Esperanza is providing the services to our elderly participants.  Distribution of meal during the weekends is very important so they can have a nutritional meal specially when they must stay at home for safety reasons.    We were able to delivered 1,918 meals during Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to our 52 participants.

         The Case Coordinator visited them to verify how they were handling the restrictions and any other need they must have.  The nurse went to the elderly homes regularly to be sure that were in a stable health condition.   The housekeeper had priorities according to the Case Coordinator findings.

             Proyecto La Nueva Esperanza distributed a prevention kit to the elderly.  It contained masks, gloves, alcohol, hand sanitizer, vitamins, clothing, personal care products.  In order to keep the elderly safe, we picked up their medicines at the pharmacy.  One participant who must remain bed-ridden received a gel matress.

             We provided transportation to the supermarket for those who need to go for groceries but do not have someone who can take them.

             Up to this date, four (4) community elderly were still having house damages caused by hurricane Maria en September 2017 because they didn’t qualify to receive government aids.  We were able to seal roofs to avoid leekages, made doors and windows installation and other minor repairs.  They were very grateful because they were in a safe home finally.

             Our organization was able to support our participants and some community elderly thanks to GlobalGiving and the donors. 

Proyecto La Nueva Esperanza, Inc. continued providing elderly services during the time of Covid-19 pandemic.  Our office was closed because of the virus from March 15 until June 2020.   During this period the employees were working from their homes.  Follow up to our participants was done by phone, and in some cases our contact was an elderly relative. 

We coordinated the distribution of groceries to our 50 elderly participants so they could stay at home with some food. They received  vegetables, fruits, non-perished items four (4) times.  To prevent Covid-19 virus they got kits with alcohol, hand sanitizer, gloves and masks twice (2).  They also received hygiene items like soap, tooth paste, etc.  By this way the elderly had for their basic needs at home and should not be put at risk going out.

Our office was opened again in July 1, 2020 following the hygiene protocol previously made for the working areas and for the participant visits. During this period our organization distributed 1,332 lunches on Fridays, Saturday and Sundays to the elderly.  Until today all of our elderly participants are in good health.  

Beside the regular services, we verified if they received the federal incentive for the Covid-19 and if the Census 2020 document was completed.  We contacted the local Census office and with an employee they visited 17 participants to help them to complete it.   

Even though the difficult time because of the Covid-19 our organization has been very responsible managing the situation in order to protect the employees and our participants.  We appreciate the donors and GlobalGiving for their support.