Help for Puerto Rico #WarriorAngels
Friends, my name is Valerie Edmondson Bolanos and I am a native Puerto Rican living near Los Angeles CA. After Hurricane Maria carved its way across Puerto Rico, my homeland, I was gutted. We have received first hand accounts of people desperate for relief: pregnant mothers, mothers who delivered their babies during the hurricane and have had no medical attention for 10+ days, elderly family members living in nursing homes with no water, power, hospitalized cancer patients that cannot get the treatment they need, and many, many more heartbreaking stories.
The state and federal response to this catastrophe has been too slow to help those people who are most vulnerable and need immediate aid. So we jumped into action, have quickly organized a group of friends and volunteers and we're calling ourselves Warrior Angels Rescue (look for our group on Facebook, #WarriorAngelsRescue).
To date, Warrior Angels Rescue has procured 1 to 3 flights per day that fly into Puerto Rico filled with emergency supplies, medical personnel and volunteers, and return to the mainland filled with evacuees including expectant mothers, medically fragile adults, and the elderly.
We have been working closely with charter flight companies to provide evacuation flights to these desperate individuals. And while companies have generously offered to provide the flights at cost, the flights are still expensive. We are actively looking to partner with donors wherever possible, asking those who can pay for a flight to do so, and also raising funds through this GoFundMe page.
You can get involved by:
1. Donating to this GoFundMe campaign
2. Volunteering: our volunteers coordinate logistics on the ground in Puerto Rico (including transportation to the airports), and help meet the needs of our evacuees in Florida, New York, New Jersey, California (and anywehre else we have volunteers).
Please do whatever you can to help!
Thank you!
Valerie
P.S. GoFundMe has requested more detail around how funds raised will be used: We have opened a separate bank account to manage these funds and will pay the charter companies out of that account. Any additional funds that are not used for rescue and evacuation efforts will be donated to San Jorge Childrens Foundation. (However, right now we dont have enough to cover the flights that are going out daily so please help!)
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The state and federal response to this catastrophe has been too slow to help those people who are most vulnerable and need immediate aid. So we jumped into action, have quickly organized a group of friends and volunteers and we're calling ourselves Warrior Angels Rescue (look for our group on Facebook, #WarriorAngelsRescue).
To date, Warrior Angels Rescue has procured 1 to 3 flights per day that fly into Puerto Rico filled with emergency supplies, medical personnel and volunteers, and return to the mainland filled with evacuees including expectant mothers, medically fragile adults, and the elderly.
We have been working closely with charter flight companies to provide evacuation flights to these desperate individuals. And while companies have generously offered to provide the flights at cost, the flights are still expensive. We are actively looking to partner with donors wherever possible, asking those who can pay for a flight to do so, and also raising funds through this GoFundMe page.
You can get involved by:
1. Donating to this GoFundMe campaign
2. Volunteering: our volunteers coordinate logistics on the ground in Puerto Rico (including transportation to the airports), and help meet the needs of our evacuees in Florida, New York, New Jersey, California (and anywehre else we have volunteers).
Please do whatever you can to help!
Thank you!
Valerie
P.S. GoFundMe has requested more detail around how funds raised will be used: We have opened a separate bank account to manage these funds and will pay the charter companies out of that account. Any additional funds that are not used for rescue and evacuation efforts will be donated to San Jorge Childrens Foundation. (However, right now we dont have enough to cover the flights that are going out daily so please help!)
I want to share the story of just one of the dozens of families we were able to help thanks to your overwhelming generosity after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.
Patricia & Natalia are two sweet, brave girls who have been bedridden since birth, as a result of microcephaly, epilepsy, and other medical conditions. They’ve always been cared for by their incredibly strong and devoted mom, Janisse, who advocated for them tirelessly after #HurricaneMaria hit #PuertoRico in September. Their house lost electricity and water, which the sisters require to survive. Even the hospitals on the island couldn’t provide basic services (like power) needed to keep their oxygen machines running, and their environment temperature-controlled to keep the ulcers and bedsores at bay.
This is a news story about the girls' struggle before we evacuated them: http://www.ny1.com/stories/2017/10/11/s/sisters_in_puerto_ri/
On October 19th, we evacuated the family on one of our humanitarian flights, thanks to the amazing Danna Camacho who helped Janisse connect with us and coordinate their complicated transport from Puerto Rico all the way to South Carolina. Now that their hometown of #Ponce has power and water restored, they are ready and eager to return back home to the island that they love. There, Janisse has the family support she needs to care for the girls round the clock.
Warrior Angels Rescue and Rosana Elena Guernica are joining forces again to help this family, and others, who are ready to return home after having been medically evacuated from the island. Some families are able to fly commercial, and we are helping those families return home with discount airfare or donated airline miles. Other families require special accommodations for travel and cannot fly commercial, and we are helping to arrange chartered flights or downline cruise transports for them as needed.
If you can help us help these families—by spreading the word, or by donating $5 or $500, every little bit truly helps. Please share, repost, or donate here:
www.gofundme.com/evacuatePR
www.warriorangelsrescue.org
Patricia & Natalia are two sweet, brave girls who have been bedridden since birth, as a result of microcephaly, epilepsy, and other medical conditions. They’ve always been cared for by their incredibly strong and devoted mom, Janisse, who advocated for them tirelessly after #HurricaneMaria hit #PuertoRico in September. Their house lost electricity and water, which the sisters require to survive. Even the hospitals on the island couldn’t provide basic services (like power) needed to keep their oxygen machines running, and their environment temperature-controlled to keep the ulcers and bedsores at bay.
This is a news story about the girls' struggle before we evacuated them: http://www.ny1.com/stories/2017/10/11/s/sisters_in_puerto_ri/
On October 19th, we evacuated the family on one of our humanitarian flights, thanks to the amazing Danna Camacho who helped Janisse connect with us and coordinate their complicated transport from Puerto Rico all the way to South Carolina. Now that their hometown of #Ponce has power and water restored, they are ready and eager to return back home to the island that they love. There, Janisse has the family support she needs to care for the girls round the clock.
Warrior Angels Rescue and Rosana Elena Guernica are joining forces again to help this family, and others, who are ready to return home after having been medically evacuated from the island. Some families are able to fly commercial, and we are helping those families return home with discount airfare or donated airline miles. Other families require special accommodations for travel and cannot fly commercial, and we are helping to arrange chartered flights or downline cruise transports for them as needed.
If you can help us help these families—by spreading the word, or by donating $5 or $500, every little bit truly helps. Please share, repost, or donate here:
www.gofundme.com/evacuatePR
www.warriorangelsrescue.org
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