By Stephanie Bowers | Project Leader
"Graci, muchas gracias!" ~ Judith
It is an amazing thing you have done! We delivered the diapers you helped to fund to the Children's Shelter. At the children's shelter, there are 14 children, aged infant to seven, and they live there. The children either have parents that are imprisoned, or they were removed from abusive homes. The average stay is about eigtheen months. Some of the children return to their parents, and others are adopted by families here in Puerto Rico.
The shelter was a little tricky to find, as the address is not shared to protect the children. We were given the address of a taco shop, and then from there were led to the shelter via special instructions. Getting to the taco shop was also an adventure, as the traffic lights are still not working because power is still not restored from the hurricane.
Judith, a caregiver at the shelter, met us excitedly at the gate. She gave us a tour, and for the safety of the children, we are not allowed to share shelter location or photographs of the childen. When we were there, they were having a special party in celebration of the upcoming Three Kings Holiday. The children were clean, well cared for, and happy.
When Hurricane Maria hit, the shelter was lucky and received little damage. Just a tree on the corner of the roof, and a lot of trees knocked down the play area fence. It's been three months since Hurricane Maria, and the shelter still relies on a generator. The road to the shelter had many broken trees, and power lines just layed on the ground or dangling from trees. They expect to perhaps have power in a few months, maybe by March or April.
The shelter relies on private donations to care for the children, and through your generosity we were able to give them cloth diapers. Judith was so excited and so thankful! Her reaction was pure joy. She's excited not only at the financial savings, but also at the environmental benefit too.
Thanks for helping babies!
~ Stephanie
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
