(Bridgeview, IL, 10/30/2017) – Zakat Foundation of America invites local leaders, Latino neighbors, and the press to collectively load and see off Zakat Foundation of America’s third emergency aid shipment of desperately needed food for the stricken of Puerto Rico, tomorrow October 31, 2017, 12:30 – 1:30 pm at Zakat Foundation of America headquarters, 7421 W 100th place, Bridgeview IL 60455.
Zakat Foundation of America’s first shipment left our docks with 2,000 units of baby food, 400 units of milk, 58 gas cook tops, 50 boxes of medical gloves, 40 gallons of medical alcohol, 40 gallons of medical soap, 30 boxes of wound dressings, and 80 boxes of medical cotton. Our second shipment consisted of hundreds of hygiene kits of soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, feminine products, and shampoo/conditioner.
Just last October 15th, a rainbow of 150 mostly young volunteers bundled more than 1,000 food packages in a three-hour flurry of selfless, unifying teamwork in preparation for our third shipment to take off tomorrow.
Leticia Escamilla, the Zakat Foundation’s Regional Program Coordinator, personally escorted previous shipments to the island seeing to the distribution among the afflicted and assessing their ongoing urgent needs.
Leticia’s first hand report is heartbreaking and alarming: 90 percent of the population remains without electricity; raw sewage pouring into rivers and reservoirs has contaminated an untold quantity of the water people are drinking and bathing in; people have died in recent days from what scientists suspect is leptospirosis; a bacterial disease spread by animal urine; 20 of the 51 sewage treatment plants are out of service, and five of its 18 highly toxic waste sites have yet to be inspected.
The Zakat Foundation has focused its distribution efforts in the capital of San Juan and in Loiza, a dangerously deprived area outside the capital city; at the University Pediatric Hospital; and in cooperation with Taller Salud, a community nonprofit helping battered, elderly, and disabled women. We work closely with churches throughout the area to reach communities in need.
For more information about Zakat Foundation of America’s Puerto Rico Disaster Relief efforts, please read this article on the Zakat Foundation of America’s website.
###
Founded in 2001, Zakat Foundation of America helps generous and caring people reach out to those in need. Zakat Foundation of America’s mission is to address immediate needs and ensure the self-reliance of the poorest people around the world. Zakat Foundation of America conducts humanitarian assistance programs in more than 50 countries. For more information, please visit www.ZAKAT.org.