Six months after Hurricane Maria, FEMA workers started packing up and leaving Puerto Rico, although their work was far from done. 100,000 residents were still without electricity, traffic lights were still not functioning, and blackouts were a regular occurrence. It felt as if Puerto Rico had “sunk back into the ocean,” forgotten by the mainland yet again, now that the headlines had disappeared.
Meanwhile, a group of 35 nonprofit organizations known collectively as “Paz Para La Mujer” continued working, as it had before the storm, to assist the people of Puerto Rico, specifically women and children affected by domestic violence, which increased significantly after the storm. Faced with even more adversity after the storm, Paz Para La Mujer partnered up with Barrio Solar, a Bay Area-based network of volunteers, to provide solar power kits and gravity lights to those still struggling in the dark after sunset. Co-founded by Puerto Rican engineer Indira Cortes and Austrian physicist Dr. Fritjof Capra, Barrio Solar has raised more than $19,000 since December 2017.
Kwest On Media paid them a visit in February 2018 to find out how a few magical gravity lights were serving some abuelitos and their extended family in Caguas, a city located about 20 miles south of San Juan, which was still without power six months after the storm. It was shocking to learn that the suburbs of the capital, not just remote rural communities, were still without power – something that has never happened in the long hurricane history of Puerto Rico.
