Caribbean Perspectives
Rebuilding Lives In Bartolo, Puerto Rico
Partnering and Collaboration for Sustainable Development
By Wendy Singh
The devastation by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico provided an opportunity for San Augustin Parish R.C. Church in San Juan and the private sector to partner on a sustainable pilot project with a community in Bartolo, Lares, located at an altitude of some 1,300 feet, and a full two and a half hours drive from capital city San Juan.
Lares is one of the municipalities along with Yauco, Adjuntas and Maricao that is known as an area of high poverty and unemployment. Revenue is derived from coffee and citrus, but these crops, which were close to being harvested, were devastated when the hurricane hit last year. This caused unemployment to spiral and left farmers without an income. In fact, farmers will not be able to harvest newly planted crops for the next three to five years.
Although San Augustin parish church is already involved in servicing several facilities including Hogar Buen Pastor for men, La Providencia home for Women, Hogar Nuestra Senora de la Providencia and the Casa San Clemente educational and spiritual community centre, parishioners felt compelled to help other communities which had become inaccessible following the hurricane. Parish priest Father Damian Wall was very supportive of the project.
Community collaboration
According to the coordinators of the Giving Programme at San Augustin (Drs Maria Procaccino and James Hawkins), Bartolo with its rugged and mountainous geography and remote location, was “off the radar” of most government agencies, and would therefore be the last to receive any assistance or help. One spokesperson said that “following the hurricane, over seven thousand people were trapped for over two weeks on the top of the mountain due to washed out roads, downed trees and absolutely no communications or power. No one came to dig them out”. With their limited resources, local farmers, neighbours and local workers and communities banded together and began the arduous job of clearing the mountain roads with their machetes and chain saws to reconnect Bartolo to the outside world. Bartolo residents are a resilient people. They survived the long lockout and resolved that once they had the opportunity they would rebuild and take action to generate self-sustaining income to ensure that they won’t have to relive the experience of having no access, no food, no water, no electricity- just waiting and hoping to survive.
Finding Shelter
First, they had to find shelter. Seven families from the Bartolo community who lost their homes during the hurricane decided to move into a school that had been closed by the government in 2015.
The community felt it was important and a symbolic statement to restore it and make it functional again as this had been the main school and community meeting point for the past 80 years —some eight generations of locals had passed through its doors for educational services and to engage in common cultural activities. St. Augustin parish group joined with them and the Episcopal Church to set about converting the abandoned school building into new housing for 19 families. The title of the land will ultimately be transferred to a local church, which will sponsor the community.
Empowered through team work
Secondly, they needed to develop a means of self-management that would allow them to improve the quality of their lives. Bartolo and neighbouring communities joined forces to establish several sustainable services and self-sufficiency efforts under the Centro de Apoyo Mutuo (CAM) Jíbaro de la Montaña/ Bartolo (Mutual Support Centre Jíbaro de la Montaña/Bartolo), which was launched in October 2017 as part of a support coalition of community-based organisations. Elisa Sanchez, Jorge Irizarry, Edith Irizarry Madera, Naftali Colon, Mayra Cardona, Edith Aquino are the coordinators at the centre.
The Mutual Support Centre has a communal dining room for feeding assistance, storage and distribution of provisions, supplies of water, food and clothing. The Centre has been assisting families who have lost everything to find shelter and assist with educational, nutritional and medical needs.
Restoring power
Thirdly, Bartolo residents focused on the need for a sustainable power grid. With the help of the St. Augustin parish, the community received two solar batteries from Sonnen, and with the help of engineer Garcia from Pura Energia (Pure Energy) finally got a solar power system installed on April 7th, 2018, almost 7 months after hurricane Maria.
Ten steps towards sustainability
Next, the community had to find a way to guarantee income. Several projects have been established to cater for the needs of the people of Baratolo and surrounding communities.
Although not formally designed that way, the interventions made in Bartolo satisfy three key pillars of sustainability, namely: economic, environmental and social sustainability. The projects of the Bartolo community encompass all three aspects, and are therefore well aligned with the definition of the 1987 Brundtland Report in which sustainable development was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
In their quest for self-sufficiency and a sustainable community, the Bartolo residents have embarked on ten projects:
- The Bartolo Agro Co-op Project is a cooperative micro-enterprise for the production of chickens for eggs, nurseries for ornamental plants, medicinal and herbal plants and trees for beekeeping as well as raising pigs and goats. Over the summer months, young people will be invited to CAM BARTOLO and other locations in the area to learn about animal husbandry, growing cycles, soil conservation and responsible land use.
- The Rural Ecological School of Bartolo was launched to create sustainable economic development, and strengthen the cultural, emotional and social web of Bartolo’s rural communities; and also to promote healthy social practices for the preservation of the environment.
- The Cooperative Institute Is designed to create small cooperative businesses for residents and to promote economic development in the rural communities. One such microenterprise is the Café that is currently being managed by young people in the community.
- The Social Dining Room and Communal Kitchen focuses on establishing a programme that provides food for the needy and elderly who live alone. Plans are also in place to sell food to generate funds for the self-sufficiency economic programme.
- The Temporary Social Housing Project, which is a work in progress, has resulted in the transformation of once abandoned class rooms into temporary housing apartments to safely shelter families who have lost their homes because of hurricane María.
- Bartolo Radio is a communal communications project intended to give voice to the values of agricultural workers. This resource will serve as a digital media workshop for training adults and young people in communal development.
- The Live Theatre Café and Cinema is a cultural project which aims to enrich and foster creative activities for youth and adults through healthy entertainment. It also promotes small cooperative businesses for youth to sell edible products at reasonable prices and hold cultural events.
- The Art School is a self-management project for the development of creative enterprises such as music, art crafts, needlework and culinary arts. The Art School’s objective is to help talented people of the community through a create-to-earn outlet which generates self-sustaining income while at the same time affirming their agricultural jíbara identity.
- A Cooperative Agricultural School will be developed to create jobs in the community. Traditional crops will be grown and propagated. There will also be a space created for children. The Centre will take care of them while the women and men work on various projects.
- Sport and Recreation. Lastly, various sports are also practised to bring a healthy balance to family life and encourage exercise and team work among children and youth groups.
Wendy J. Singh is a Human Rights and Human Development Specialist with over 20 years of experience reviewing laws and policies relevant to the execution of social protection programmes for the most vulnerable (children, youth, women, persons with disabilities, the elderly and prisoners), and with drafting legislation relevant to the administration of justice. She has in-depth experience in the development, assessment and implementation of social development programmes for international agencies, public and private sector, applying standards set by international treaties, and human development indicators for the MDGs. With deep knowledge and expertise within the Caribbean, she has conducted numerous financial and process audits of prisons and children’s institutions in CARICOM countries and for the UN, regional and international NGOs.
