On Friday the Puerto Rico Relief Fund of South-Central Wisconsin officially began to fundraise for victims of Hurricane Maria at the Latino Chamber of Commerce in Fitchburg.
PRRF-SCW pleaded for the community to come together as one and offer assistance to victims left on the island in the wake of the disaster. Veronica Figueroa-Velez, project manager for PRRF-SCW, became involved because she has family in Puerto Rico who have been impacted by Hurricane Maria, but her family is not her only concern.
“I’m involved not only because I have family there, but because I care for the people in the island as a whole,” Figueroa-Velez said.
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The fund hopes to identify the groups on the island that are doing the groundwork to help Hurricane Maria victims. They also aim to provide direct financial support to such organizations instead of distributing funds to government entities or other support groups with a high overhead.
Figueroa-Velez said all of the committee members have ties to the island and each member feels personally involved in contributing to the relief effort.
“I want to make sure that our people back home are treated with dignity, with respect, and get the help that they need as US citizens,” Figueroa-Velez said.
She hopes the relief fund will help educate people on the devastation that has occurred in Puerto Rico. The organization also aims to look beyond Puerto Rico’s geographical connection with the United States and instead raise awareness on the status of the people living there who were impacted by Hurricane Maria.
“We hope to [bring] awareness of our status as US citizens and [hope] we can move this further to create change,” Figueroa-Velez continued, “Political policies [have tied] Puerto Rico to very scrutinizing processes that have blocked access to people in the island, [and] blocked the access for people to have the relief that they need.”
There are many fundraising events scheduled in the months to come to provide further assistance to the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
To donate to the Puerto Rico Relief Fund of South-Central Wisconsin, donators can visit https://www.razoo.com/story/596u9g.
