La Fondita de Jesus in the Community

Dear donors:

Receive our greetings on behalf of the family of Corporación La Fondita de Jesús. It is our deepest wish that you all are well and in good health! In order to keep you informed, we want to share with you our achievements and challenges providing services to vulnerable communities of San Juan through “La Fondita de Jesús en la Comunidad” program from February to May, 2022.

During this quarterly period, we impacted the lives of 2,379 unduplicated people (6% more than those served from October, 2021 to January, 2022) in the following 21 vulnerable communities, four (4) of which (19%) were impacted for the first time by our staff (arranged in alphabetical order):

• Beatriz Lasalle Elderly
• Casa Juan Ruíz Vélez Elderly
• Casa Metropolitana
• Colectivo El Hangar
• Comunidad Mita (new community)
• Condominio Emiliano Pol (new community)
• Condomino Bahía A
• Corporación La Fondita de Jesús (including its Social Development and Self-Sufficiency Camp)
• El Gandúl
• Hipódromo (new community)
• La Inmaculada Elderly Center
• La Marina
• Plaza de la Convalecencia, Río Piedras
• Plebiscito
• Residencial San Martín (new community)
• San Cristobal Apartments
• San Sebastián Apartments
• Shangai
• Tras Talleres
• Villa Clemente
• Villa Palmeras

Regarding the served people, more than a half of the participants (59%) were females, 39% males, 1% trans women, and 1% identified themselves as non-binary. As this project emphasizes on the elderly, we had the opportunity to impact the lives of 1,531 (64%) of people who were 60 and over during this quarter. In other words, more than three-fifths of the population served were older adults from vulnerable communities in San Juan, and most of them were at imminent risk of losing their homes given their needs and life circumstances.

We are glad to report that “La Fondita de Jesús en la Comunidad” was able to deliver a total of 11,182 units of services to the communities served (97% more units of services than in the last quarter, and an average of five [5] units per person), as follows {service (units)}:

• food – hot meals/lunches and snacks (3,754)
• emergency grocery bags (701)
• food assistance to other organizations (7)
• nutritional supplements (5,382)
• workshops (251)
• educational materials (511)
• COVID-19 prevention kits (203)
• COVID-19 testing clinics (59)
• meetings with community leaders (3)
• delivery of electrical appliances for risk mitigation (12)
• materials for creating pots for home gardens (14)
• cleaning and disinfecting products (201)
• delayed Christmas activity due to spike in COVID-19 cases in Puerto Rico (25)
• mosquito nets created and delivered (9)
• confection of Saint Valentine’s towels (10)
• evaluations for services (13)
• follow up to participants (11)
• follow up to risk mitigation services (4)
• in-house referrals (2)
• others (10)

Achievements:

• The attendance of people to educational spaces to participate in workshops has increased.

• Community members have been consistent in collaborating with the distribution of hot lunches among their residents, mostly elderly people, who do not have access or find it very difficult to reach community centers due to comorbidities.

• The communities have leaders with a high sense of commitment, who are willing to acquire new educational tools.

• New spokespersons have been developed in the communities, who collaborate in the activities and the dissemination of information.

• The Tras Talleres community continues to offer services with its community kitchen, and has increased the number of lunches they prepare and distribute, impacting neighboring communities such as El Gandúl, La Colectora, Colectivo El Hangar, and Condominio Bahía A.

• Most of the impacted communities have a space available for the development of activities. Community members have joined the neighborhood boards to support their maintenance, cleaning, and reconditioning tasks, and keeping them in optimal conditions. A close relationship of trust has been created between community leaders and “La Fondita de Jesús en la Comunidad” program’s staff, who have listened to the needs of the leaders, providing resources that allow them to obtain the necessary materials to reconditioning community spaces.

• To date, communities are having access to vaccines and COVID-19 tests. Even though the executive order on the use of the mask and physical distancing was made less restrictive, residents have been observed committing to the use of these protective measures and putting into practice the knowledge acquired in the workshops and educational materials distributed with the prevention kits.

• People with history of homelessness and community leaders are participating in an exhibition of art called “Vehículos y Puentes” at Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar (MADMi). The artists have decorated a shopping cart each one, telling their stories being homeless or expressing their thoughts on how homelessness impact their communities, or even how some of them feel themselves as homeless people even to make visible the reality of those living in the streets, as well as the perception of vulnerable communities of San Juan about this social situation. Once the exhibition ends at MADMi, it will be transferred and exhibited in different vulnerable communities in San Juan.

• During this period, we have established collaborative agreements with the following entities: Direct Relief; Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar; and university campuses such as Huertas College and Universidad Carlos Albizu (internship programs).

Challenges:

• The coordination of activities has been limited by the schedule established by the community spaces administered and provided by the Municipality of San Juan. There are communities with no available spaces, and activities are being held in houses with a reasonable amount of people to promote physical distance and other prevention measures.

• There is poor availability of the Municipality of San Juan to work appropriately on community issues (ej. narrow streets, rubble removal, maintenance of green areas, among others).

• From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the government of Puerto Rico and its agencies have digitalized all the processes to access essential services. People in vulnerable communities of San Juan, especially older adults with comorbidities, do not have the necessary resources to acquire technological equipment or the knowledge and skills to use them to access the services they need. In addition, most of them do not have family support, and they have poor access to medical appointments, supermarkets, pharmacies, and other mainstreams. We are working on a collaborative agreement with "Mi gente grande", which is an organization that specializes in educational spaces of this nature, and who can support the impacted population to mitigate this digital gap.

• There is still stigma from society and government agencies to collaborate with the LGBTTQI+ population and their needs, especially the trans population.

• Many “informal leaders” want to work, but the community boards do not make it possible. Therefore, the community educator provides them with mediation and support. This promotes and allows the development of new leaders. Meanwhile, some other community leaders have been influenced by the politics of Puerto Rico.

• There are multiple external community groups with very good intentions, but whose work leads to the duplication of services and efforts, promoting the perpetuation of welfare and not allowing the development of self-sufficiency among community members.

Social investors like you give us every day the opportunity to continue with our mission! For additional information or if you have any question about this report, please do not hesitate to contact us at 787-724-4051 Ext. 305 or eotero@lafonditadejesus.org. Thank you!

Respectfully,
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Edwin Edgardo Otero-Cuevas
Development Director