Help Puerto Rican Families
My name is Esther and I live outside of Boston. My brother, Jonathan, a physics professor, moved to Arecibo, Puerto Rico to work at the Arecibo Observartory in 1992. In 1997 he married Yvonne and they had a daughter in 2000. They were lucky to have gotten through Hurricane Maria with their house intact and resources for food and water. When I got to speak with him after the storm, he said, their fortune was just "dumb luck".
Many of their neighbors were not as fortunate. After 25 years of residence, Arecibo is now home for my brother; his neighbors are his friends, the town, his community. In the picture below, his friends Zenaida and Irving visit their home for the first time after Hurricane Maria. Maria took off the roof, destroying everything. The couple has two children. Zenaida also takes of her father, who is striken with Alzheimer’s Disease, while managing her own Multiple Sclerosis.
Initially, we started this campaign to buy and ship them a generator -- electricity is a medical necessity for this family and they are now all staying with Zenaida's father, in his house. However, this is only one family, and one story, from Arecibo and across the island - there are many others without homes, who are enduring additional personal hardships.
We decided that it made more sense to raise money for the entire Barrio. I'm told that this resourceful, hardworking and intelligent group of American citizens can do an awful lot with $5000, so that is the stated goal. But perhaps, with your help, we can exceed that goal to support recovery efforts of friends and neighbors in Arecibo. Thank you for your generousity! 
