Everyone please take a moment to watch the video, Puerto Rico Rising, sent to us by Rosa Clemente about the current state of the families in Puerto Rico post Hurricane Maria. As of Dec. 4th, the death toll has been reported that over 1,000 women, children, and men have died POST Hurricane Maria, and that number is still expected to rise due to the lack of aid, support, and accurate reporting.
Putting Puerto Rico Back On The Map
Puerto Rico is experiencing a devastating humanitarian crisis. However, the mainstream news media has all but neglected the story, with data from Media Cloud, a database that collects news published on the Internet every day, showing that the devastation in Puerto Rico is getting relatively little attention from digital and cable news outlets compared to its coverage on Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. (Read More)
The Current Narrative
In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.4 million, the people are hungry, homeless and dying. The situation is dire, and, per San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, with many towns without potable water, communication or transportation to major cities, it is only getting worse. Despite this reality, the federal government and mainstream news media alike have alleged that the situation is getting better, that it is a “good news story,” as Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke described it just last week.
There is nothing “good” about the disaster plundering Puerto Rico. This is a crisis of many facets: humanitarian, environmental, economic and political. (Read More)
What’s Missing
There is a public health crisis due to the precarious conditions in hospitals and the threat of epidemics stemming from contaminated water. Cities, towns and neighborhoods outside the metropolitan area have been abandoned. What is missing from many of those reports is coverage from the western part of the island and concrete information of plans and immediate, achievable initiatives to move the country ahead, as well as an ongoing plan. Explanations are necessary for why relief has been so slow and insufficient.
The Team
We have put together a team of Puerto Rican and Latinx journalists and media professionals to tell these unreported stories from an independent lens, to investigate why efforts to reach, house, feed and clothe Puerto Ricans are unsuccessful, to highlight the conditions in the western part of the island, to hear the people’s response to the slow and inadequate aid from the U.S. and to obtain information on plans for relief and rebuilding. (Read More)
What Will We Deliver
Together, the team will travel the small island and speak with the people devastated and the local organizations offering relief to guarantee several deliverables:
• We will work with various outlets, including The Intercept, Truthout, mitú, The Root, GRIT Tv, Rising Up and more, to push news items about unreported municipalities
• Make an educational and social media toolkit
• Produce a 15-minute short film on the crises, which will also act as a fundraising tool for a feature-length project
• Produce a full-length documentary, to be produced under Clemente’s Know Thy Self Productions, looking at the island’s progress, or lack thereof, over time and how the people’s politics about its colonial status may shift as a result.
How can YOU help?
Watch the documentary centering the community of Loiza: Puerto Rico Rising, share it with your network of friends, family, and/or community partners, and donate to support the work of the journalists on the ground bringing awareness to the devestation and need of the families in Puerto Rico.
Video: http://pronthemap.com/
Donation Link: https://www.gofundme.com/reportreimaginerevive-puerto-rico