Rebuilding a Safe Haven for Future Crises

It has now been exactly one year since the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma. Thanks to our supporters, Intercambios was able to quickly rebuild and be more prepared for future storms. We have been able to repair the damage to our office and resume our lifesaving services. Our clients have been able to attain greater stability, as they are no longer faced with ongoing power outages and lack of access to communications. The support from our generous donors and foundation partners made it possible to purchase a generator, cistern and water filter. These items will greatly help our clients stay safe in the event of future storms!

Although we have recovered from the immediate damage wrought by the hurricanes, we now look to the future to achieve full disaster preparedness. In the coming months, Intercambios will seek to create an emergency supply of essential items such as batteries, a convertor, and a power generator. In addition, we are raising resources to conduct an organizational needs assessment and establish written policies and procedures to implement in future storms, which will ensure a systematic and highly coordinated response that will save the lives of our constituents. We are also seeking support to purchase client survival kits, which would be equipped with canned food, bottled water, detergent, hygiene items and LED lamps.

Last but not least, we are excited to report that we are in the process of ramping up our clinical operations to address any barriers to treatment our clients face. Intercambios is deeply grateful for our individual and foundation donors, whose support in these difficult times has allowed us to rebuild to be stronger than ever!