Malden Rotary Donates to Vieques, PR Organizations

Over the past week, Malden Rotary returned to the Caribbean island of Vieques to make donations to organizations helping those hit hardest by Hurricane Maria. In September 2017 when the hurricane hit the tiny island off the east coast of Puerto Rico, the island's infrastructure was ravaged so badly that the only hospital was forced to close. It was bad enough that electricity and water were not being serviced and delivered but residents were left without both emergency and routine care.

In the aftermath many non profits and community organizations have stepped in to help. Doctors and nurses arrived on island triage and provide emergency care while others provided logistical services and funding to get patients over to the main island for further medical treatment. The only way on or off Vieques is via several small airlines or a very unreliable ferry system. This meant the those that needed life saving care such as dialysis treatments, chemotherapy or any other care either went without or had to find help to get them there. The trips were often delayed resulting in 16 - 24 hour trips back and forth.

For over 60 years, the U.S. Navy used the small island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, as a bombing range and site for military-training exercises. Then the island got sick. Thousands of residents have alleged that the military’s activities caused illnesses. With a population around 9,000, Vieques is home to some of the highest sickness rates in the Caribbean. According to Cruz María Nazario, an epidemiologist at the University of Puerto Rico’s Graduate School of Public Health, people who live in Vieques are eight times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease and seven times more likely to die of diabetes than others in Puerto Rico, where the prevalence of those diseases rivals U.S. rates. Cancer rates on the island are higher than those in any other Puerto Rican municipality.

Where health concerns are so great, the last thing this island needed was a storm of this magnitude to destroy an already frail health care system.

The island needed help and one of those organizations is the All Saint Episcopal Church. Located in the small town of Isabel Segunda the church is small but a big part of the community. Malden Rotary donated sixty long sleeve adult t-shirts and 30 children size tees left over from past road races. The church uses the proceeds to ensure anyone on island with medical conditions has access to transportation to appointments and treatments on the main land. They along with so many other non profits are saving lives and easing the stress still felt by residents nearly one and a half years later.

The human tragedy is sad and compounded by the plight one of the islands gems, the animals that call Vieques home. There are hundreds of wild dogs and cats all over the island, as well as the islands majestic population of wild horses that add real beauty to the landscape; the presence and personality of the animals truly make Vieques a unique environment. As the island struggled to recover from the storms many feared for the wild animals, as well as those that were pets. If people were struggling to survive then choices were having to be made and many pets abandoned.

The Vieques Humane Society was one of the agencies that were there before the storm and helped respond and articulate the need for more services to come to aid the entire island population. Sadly their own facility was damaged so badly they are still rebuilding, but that never deterred them from their mission. Despite building damage and loss of supplies to the non profits infrastructure and the workers' own losses, they began adapting to their new surroundings, rebuilding and sheltering animals any way possible.

Started in in the early 1980s by a group of animal-loving islanders, the Vieques Humane Society and Animal Rescue(VHSAR) offers a comprehensive solution to animal care. Their Santa Maria shelter houses upwards of 100 animals at any time, including cats, dogs and even a few horses. In addition, the non-profit runs spay and neuter clinics and provides a low-cost veterinary clinic that’s open to all animals on the island. Between 2013 and 2015, VHSAR spayed and neutered about 1,000 dogs, and the organization found homes for 214 animals in need between December 2015 and September 2016.

The Vieques Humane Society and Anilmal Rescue has been working with other caring non profits to transport and re-home animals in need. They are finding partners on the mainland United States that are helping to put so many animals in permanent homes through a network of foster homes. On our flight home a couple from Woburn were transporting "Tomie" a stray cat to his forever home. While there Malden Rotary also made a monetary donation to the Vieques Humane Society.

Malden Rotarians Mark Lawhorne and Ron Cox are frequent visitors to the island of Vieques. They have always returned from their trips and shared stories with our group about the beautiful island and the people they have met. Malden Rotary will continue to partner with the Vieques Rotary Club and the people and animals that make the island such a wonderful destination.