By Rafael Torruella | Executive DIrector
In the past three months, our team at Intercambios Puerto Rico has continued its mission to provide life saving harm reduction services to vulnerable populations in the eastern side of the island of Puerto Rico. Life in the island has slowly recovered a sense of normalcy after two years of post-recovery work, however life continues to be a struggle for those who live in the streets and who have problematic use of illegal substances. Puerto Rico has in the last two year witness the implementation of a myriad of austerity measures imposed by a fiscal oversight board, whose priorities have been to recoup monies for the island’s creditors and has continuously disregarded the consequences such measures are having on the island essential services such as health and social welfare among others. These have simply created a greater vacuum of services for those most disenfranchised groups, including homeless and drug users. Most recently the island has been the object of much press coverage as evidence of rampant corruption and disregard for the wealth being of its citizens was revealed in a series of social media scandals. This evidence prompted a level of local outraged and protest never seen before in Puerto Rico. The island and its people are ready to see a new way of doing things and are tired of the same old political and social discourses.
This is a time where exciting ideas are gaining momentum and local citizens are wanting to seek social justice in many areas. Intercambios’ work and vision for social justice for marginalized communities has the potential to gain track in this new and exciting context where every week people are getting together in different municipalities across the island to map out their vision of a future for Puerto Rico that is steered by the people and for the people. At this historic moment, Intercambios is gearing to become a stronger voice and advocate for a harm reduction approach to mental and physical health for marginalized communities and offered up an agenda for how to attend to homeless and drug user community not only in times of crisis but in regular times. In order to do so, our team is working hard to hire a social worker with experience in dealing with crisis and disaster preparation that will advocate and work closely with municipal governments to ensure their crisis preparedness protocols include measures that specifically attend to homeless and drug using individuals’ needs in times of crisis and natural disasters. This new team member will also be working with our clients to help navigate obstacles that they may still have related to Hurricane Maria and Irma aftermath. It is our understanding that no other organization in the island serving these populations is working to develop crisis preparedness protocols, capacity and kits for its participants, as we are. We are not satisfied with simply covering immediate needs and always work to develop individuals’ capacity as well as expand services and infrastructure as our resources allow, in order to provide a wholistic harm reduction approach to improving our participants’ and their communities’ lives.
We also continue to provide sterile injecting equipment, rapid HIV testing, nursing assessments and referrals to permanent housing for homeless individuals, motivational interviewing and referrals to treatment for problematic drug use for individuals who request it. Among the projects down our pipeline are to be able to set up a mobile clinic with access to a medical doctor, Hepatitis C testing and treatment, and ambulatory drug treatment assisted with Buprenorphine/Suboxone for opioid users.
Our team is excited about what the future holds for us, and we hope you are too and continue to be our partners. Our work would not be possible, were it not for social justice minded individuals like yourselves who believe a better and more just world is possible. Everyday we invest ourselves in the belief that every single effort helps make someone’s life more meaningful and has a ripple effect onto the communities we live in. Help us continue to demonstrate that it is possible to approach drug use and homelessness in a different way that is cost-effective, humane and socially just.
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