Educational Community Relief Center for 600 people

Dear Friends.

Today while my heart is full of love, faith and hope, it is also saddened by the challenges of the last fewmonths in Puerto Rico as the situation on our island continues to get more and more dire. The last few months have been full of challenges!

We appreciate every word of encouragement, text, emails you send us, your prayers and good thoughts for us and Puerto Rico. These are just some of the things that help us in the face of so many situations that we encounter on a daily basis. You are such an important part of For Such a Time as This.

In the past 6 years Puerto Rico has suffered 3 hurricanes, 2 earthquakes and hundreds of earth tremors and recently a tornado. A tornado is not normal for PR, being a tropical island in the middle of the Caribbean. While no lives were lost. The tornado touched the mountain area of a town called Aguada, affecting twenty homes and business before it ran out to sea as a waterspout.

With so many natural disasters in a short period of time, a pandemic that crippled the economy and the redevelopment that is happening complicated the already delicate and weakened economic situation. People are very stressed with more cases of depression, bringing a wave of mental health disorders,increase in suicide and a rising delinquency rate.

We have also had a very difficult time, our commitment has been to help our people by giving them love, faith and hope, but that does not mean that we are not affected by the circumstances in PR. Currently we lose electricity services daily for several hours, as well as water and internet. To this we can add a heat wave for the past 3 months with temperatures reaching and sometimes exceeding 110/115 degrees. Even in the midst of all this we are seeing how God is helping us to continue to move forward.

Grocery Distribution: In the past months we have delivered more than 150 groceries bags and more than 600 people have benefited from the distribution of hot meals in the streets.

Our Back-to-School: Campaign this year reached Vieques, an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, lies about 8 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, and measures about 20miles long by 4.5 miles wide. Vieques is part of Puerto Rico but often forgotten. Since Hurricane Maria,for example, there is not a hospital and the only way to get to San Juan is by ferry or a small planewhich does not work 24 hours a day. We were able to serve the families of Vieques, thanks to you!

In a collaborative effort with “Arropando la Esperanza con Abuela Fefa”, we delivered 200 backpacks with school supplies In addition, 50 backpacks were given to low-income children in different cities in the Western part of the main island, Puerto Rico.

Health Program: Thanks to a collaboration with Vitamin Angels and Walgreens we have been able to provide pregnant women with free prenatal vitamins.

Emergency Supplies: Thanks to Puerto Rico Rises, a sister organization, we were able to help in the distribution of emergency supplies, hygiene kits and solar lamps.

This is just a short recap of all that you have helped us to achieve thanks to your continued support! Words will never be enough to thank you for making a difference in so many lives!

With much love,

Yani

Links:

• http://www.forsuchatimeasthispr.org

Dear Partners & Friends.

We are more than grateful to all of you for your support in giving to For Such a Time as This, as we continue our work in Puerto Rico bringing love, faith and hope to the unserved communities.

The first three months of the year have been filled with work and pleasant surprises and we cannot wait to share some of them with you.

In January, after several months of conversations, Global Volunteers and For Such a Time as This, reached a partnership agreement. This agreement was created to receive volunteers who will come to Puerto Rico with Global Volunteers and work on various projects with different local organizations.

We are grateful to Global Volunteers for already providing 3 groups of about 12 volunteers in the past 3 months.

On January 6th we celebrated, Three Kings Day in Puerto Rico, bringing love, joy and hope to children in an orphanage in Isabela.

Each child received pajamas, shoes, books and toys. We had the opportunity to play with the children, colored and read stories.

Their hearts were filled with happiness and gratitude for your generosity!

Our program “Los de a Pie” continues to visit our street friends twice a month. We have had the opportunity to build relationships, listen to their stories and help them feel that they are not forgotten in society.

We are very grateful to Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church of Virginia, U.S.A, that has joined us in this effort as a partner through monthly food donations!

In addition, we delivered coats, socks and blankets to hundreds of families in the mountains of Puerto Rico where in the months of January through March temperatures drop unexpectedly to below 50 degrees at night.

Through our partnership agreement with Puerto Rico Rises we have worked together with a group of 100 organizations and churches to reach different parts of Puerto Rico with much needed cleaning supplies.

Thank you for your financial and prayer support. We would not have been able to reach our communities and provide the love, faith and hope without your help these past months.

With your continued support, For Such a Time as This, will continue to have in impact on the people and communities God has given us the opportunity to serve!

Yani Ocasio

Links:

• http://www.forsuchatimeasthispr.org