By Wilfred W. Labiosa | Executive Director
In the last six months, Puerto Rico has been impacted, even further, with COVID cases impacting not just our participants but our staff. Although Waves Ahead has needed to confront our "new way of providing services" we have met the challenge head-on. Waves Ahead has provided the following:
1)We provided a total of 83 Food & Gardening Boxes to individuals from our Maunabo and San Juan sites. These boxes included food to prepare as well as soil, seeds, small plants, and pots that can be used to develop a small garden in either your balcony or your home. In addition, we provided seminars during distribution on how to harvest using mindfulness techniques.
2) Mental health sessions: We provided an increase number of hours of mental health therapy to LGBT older adults to improve mental health alongside mindfulness sessions, yoga and meditation, and peer lead support groups. We provided a total of 135 new clients with sessions for a total (in the four months of this grant) 362 unduplicated clients/participants in individual sessions, yoga and meditation groups, mindfulness support groups, music-therapy sessions, and peer lead support groups focused on the transgender and non-binary individuals.
2) We held Education Circles, particularly health education, promote awareness and prevention, and develops healthy attitudes and behaviors towards food sustainability and healthier way of living. We held four health education sessions focused on mental health; two educational sessions focused on food sustainability; and four meetings with local legislators and employees where a training was included focused on diversity related issues and the treatment of LGBT older adults. A total of 10 sessions impacting 124 individuals plus all of the other individuals who will be able to view the four health education sessions that were kept in our YouTube channel.
The highlighted achievements for us is that we have been able to meet some of the need that exist in Puerto Rico from our 3 community centers specially during COVID pandemic. It has been challenging but gratifying to be able to provide the services to individuals that for the most part feel lonely or isolated. Another achievement was the development of Memorandum of agreement with MercyCorps, a national organization with a site in Puerto Rico that focuses on the environment, green public spaces, and community/household gardens. They assisted us in the design and education of home garden spaces. In addition, we received a donation of seed packages and fruit-trees from a local insurance entity, lowering our costs related to home gardening kits. Triple-S Community Foundation donated $2,500 worth of fruit trees and $2,500 worth of seed packages.
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By Wilfred W. Labiosa | Executive Director
By Wilfred W. Labiosa | Executive Director
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