FFTP Sends Critically Needed Relief Items to Puerto Rico for Fiona Recovery
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (September 26, 2022) This week, Food For The Poor is sending 26 pallets of essential relief items to trusted partners in Puerto Rico to help families recovering from Hurricane Fiona.
Seven pallets are being airfreighted to the Episcopal Church, with 19 pallets being shipped in a 40-foot container to Cáritas Puerto Rico.
Relief items include generators, liquefied petroleum gas stoves, hygiene kits, adult and baby diapers, cleaning supplies and buckets.
“People lost everything from shoes to stoves,” said Jisabelle Garcia-Pedroso, FFTP’s Director of Programs and Operations.
FFTP is partnering with Florida Baptist Convention’s international relief network known as Send Relief, which is preparing meals at six locations in the most devastated areas of southern Puerto Rico, and three more sites anticipated to open later this week.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to bring the power of our organizations together to provide much-needed relief to families in need and to expand our reach through the church,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said.
The charity also is providing financial assistance to Cáritas in the Dominican Republic to purchase hygiene items and food for families affected there.
Fiona’s blow to Puerto Rico was devastating as many residents haven’t recovered from Hurricane Maria, which slammed the island five years ago.
While FFTP’s mission primarily is to serve internationally, the charity has responded in the past to catastrophic disasters in the United States and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
At least 16 people in Puerto Rico and two in the Dominican Republic have died in the wake of the storm, according to news reports.
About half of Puerto Rico’s nearly 1.5 million power customers were still without electricity on Sunday, a week after Fiona made landfall. But about 80 percent of the island’s water customers had their water restored.
The Episcopal Church has opened four response centers in Maricao, Ponce, Trujillo Alto and Mayagüez with the support of local churches in the hardest hits areas.
Cáritas is providing aid in 78 municipalities through a network of six dioceses. Cáritas also is distributing food and water in Salinas.
In the Dominican Republic, FFTP’s partners Order of Malta and Cáritas are responding to families impacted by Fiona.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, at least 78 aqueducts were out of service, 13,760 people were displaced and more than 1,000 sought refuge in shelters, according to the country’s emergency management officials.
Donors can help FFTP provide relief to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic by making a cash donation at www.FoodForThePoor.org/fiona.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Communications Associate
954-471-0928 – mobile
[email protected]