Saving a loved home in Corozal

My name is Tina Rosado and my family and I moved to Dorado, Puerto Rico in July 2017 right before Maria. More recently, in August 2022, we moved to Brookline, MA. We have watched from afar the destruction produced by the rain and flooding Fiona brought to the island.

August 2017, first day of school

We still own our house in Dorado which we rent, and one of the main reasons we decided to rent was because we could trust our home to the care of Yessy Santiago and Eduardo Berrios. Our house did not suffer any damage but that cannot be said of their house in Corozal, which is standing at the verge of a cliff at the moment due to a landslide during Fiona. This GoFundMe is to save their home, it is not just a house, it is the home they have built brick by brick, nail by nail… even after loosing all material belongings after Maria blew their roof in 2017.

Let me tell you a little about Eduardo and Yessy:

Since our arrival to PR in 2017 they touched our lives in ways that only people that know true love can. They are a couple that represent love, hard work, dedication, care, perseverance and faith. When our family met Yessy and Eduardo, he had recently left his work in construction due to a chronic disease which requires ongoing chemotherapy to keep non-cancerous tumors in his body from growing. It had, and still affects, his physical condition, but nevertheless he has not stop working. In 2017, he started to help our son Alejandro as his personal care assistant due to the fact that Alejandro has SMA type 2 and has needed a powered wheelchair and assistance for daily living tasks since he was 2 years old. Eduardo was beside him during 10th, 11th and 12th grade. And since then has become our handyman and that of other 3 families in the area. There is no project to small or to big for him, Eduardo is always excited and happy to help us beautify and make our house more enjoyable for the family.

Eduardo & Alejandro at school field trip

While Yessy helped us with our weekly upkeep with the house. She soon became a sister to me, specially helping with our two girls when they struggled through depression. There are no words to express what Eduardo and Yessy represent to our family… freedom, independence, opportunity, safety, trust, love, family.

Early in our relationship they lost all their belongings during Maria. They both were working full time, Eduardo at school all day with Alejandro and Yessy cleaning and organizing not only our house but 3 additional ones. They would return home to no beds, no dining table, no chairs, no sofas; an empty house with no functional spaces. Our hearts couldn’t cope with the idea of the overflow of their service, hard work, dedication and love and then returning home to no decent rest, not spending dinner time at the table with their kids, and still having to repair a roof. With the help of friends and coworkers we were able to gift them with bedrooms and sofas via monetary donations.

April 2018 at Corozal, visit to hand in donations for furniture

And Eduardo was able to rebuild his roof with his hands… a stronger one that sustained Fiona’s winds and rain. Nevertheless, the land under the house was the one to fail this time.

September 2022 after Fiona

This fund will go towards three main goals:

1. Money to cover a rental property where they can sleep at peace without worrying of imminent collapse or any drop of rain that threatens the foundation. At the moment, the family has been relocated to an Airbnb (Sept 23-30, $1,143.35) until something more long term can be arranged. We are estimating 6 months of rent to give time for the construction to progress.

2. Money to cover an evaluation of the soil and estimates of the work required to fix for good the house’s foundation.

3. Money for the construction project to reinforce the foundation.

We don’t want to think of the worse, but in case the foundation collapses or the house is deemed lost, the money would be used then for relocation to a new place.

Each day news tell about new road and house collapses, we don’t want to wait for the worst. We want to be proactive to save a loved home in Corozal before it becomes one new story of despair.

Thanks for your donations, for sharing… thanks for caring!