Supporting Community Development in Puerto Rico

For five consecutive years, La Maraña has opened its Participatory Design Lab to communities across the Puerto Rican archipelago, creating a space where residents and community leaders can transform local knowledge and priorities into concrete projects for their neighborhoods.

2026: The 5th Open Call

In 2026, La Maraña launched the Lab’s fifth consecutive open call, inviting communities throughout Puerto Rico to propose projects addressing challenges in their territories. From the proposals received, Oasis Comunitario de Villa Hugo was selected for this year’s Lab.

Oasis Comunitario de Villa Hugo:

Located in San Isidro, the Villa Hugo community has identified access to water during service interruptions and emergencies as an important community need. Through the Lab, residents are working alongside PICSI and Villa Hugo Despierta to co-design a community rainwater harvesting and storage system at their community center.

The project will create a shared water reserve that can support more than 1,000 families during disruptions while strengthening the community’s capacity for organization, mutual support, and emergency response.

Help Us Bring the Project to Life.

The participatory design process is only the beginning. To move from community vision to built infrastructure, the project now needs financial support for materials, equipment, construction, technical assistance, and implementation.

Your donation will help Villa Hugo turn a community-led idea into a tangible, sustainable resource for its residents 

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What Your Donation Makes Possible

Your support helps us move the Oasis Comunitario de Villa Hugo from community vision to implementation by:

• Listening to the community: Supporting surveys and participatory activities to better understand residents’ water needs, priorities, and experiences.
• turning the community’s design into a built solution: Financing the materials, equipment, and implementation needed to bring the community’s final rainwater harvesting and storage design to life.
• Sharing knowledge: Creating educational materials on community-led and “guerrilla” water collection strategies, so residents can learn, adapt, and replicate practical approaches to water resilience.