By Jon Eichner | Interim Exec Director
Life under the 'New Normal' is anything but normal on a small island of around 4000 people. The impact of this global pandemic after being hit by two cat 5 hurricanes has greatly affected our community in all fronts of recovery including the economic and social.
The majority of the homes we are working on belong to Seniors who are particulary vulnerable to COVID-19. To prevent putting these individuals at additional risk construction has been put on hold during the lock down period. As Puerto Rico is still under curfew shipments of building supplies have been impacted severly.
At this point we are just beginning the process of restarting construction. We have 2 homes that were under construction when the 'stay at home' order was initiated in the Virgin Islands. Three more homes were in the pre-planning phases and have also suffered set backs as permitting offices have also reduced hours.
As we move forward under the "new normal" contractors are learning how to spread out their crews, offer portable handwashing stations on the jobsite and provding employees with masks. Getting back to work has had more of an impact on our beneficiaries mental well being as we are opening up our island but heading into another hurricane season.
One senior ( aged 72 ) was so adamant about getting her home rebuilt she was tying rebar for her own foundation. She managed to get her foundation started before running out of assistance from the federal government. Through various donations we are working to get her a safe place built in time before hurricane season really begins to ramp up.
It is difficult time for all of us but as a community we will prevail.
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 receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
