29 SUNY students, with 15 students from Oswego State, traveled to Puerto Rico on June 17 to participate in the first round of relief efforts following hurricanes Irma and Maria.

This past summer, SUNY and CUNY schools across New York joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other volunteer organizations to participate in his “New York Stands With Puerto Rico Recovery and Rebuilding” initiative, which is focused on working with nonprofit organizations to rebuild areas demolished by the recent hurricanes. Both SUNY and CUNY schools sent students to Puerto Rico to help in the efforts.

New York has been continuously working to aid Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which hit the island in September 2017, by issuing tasks like sending utility personnel and damage assessment experts to the island. However, plenty of work still needs to be done to restore the island to what it once was.

According to first session group leader and Oswego State faculty member Joanne O’Toole, in the Puerto Rican culture, it is not uncommon for homes to be built informally by family members and then inherited as generations grow.

For that reason, homes are not always built according to codes, and there are not always official paperwork or deeds involved, meaning the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, cannot offer a large amount of financial compensation or support. It would need paperwork to do so.

“The people we were helping were vulnerable,” O’Toole said. “One of the people we helped was an 83-year-old widow, whose granddaughter lived with her, but she was studying at the university at night and working by day. She had been offered $500 by FEMA, but it would require much more than $500.”

This was a common occurrence. Many of the people the volunteers helped were elderly and unable to fix the damage on their own.

“We were able to sit with homeowners and hear their stories,” O’Toole said. “The emotional element of that for people to be heard and feel like their needs were being heard was equally important as anything else.”

For some volunteers, the damage caused by the hurricanes in Puerto Rico affected them personally.

“I’m Dominican and Cuban-Puerto Rican, so I have Puerto Rican family over there, and it just hit home,” volunteer Diana Aguero said. “Being a part of the United States, it didn’t really receive the help that it needed. It felt right to give back to the people.”

Volunteers had extremely packed days, beginning as early as 7 a.m. for breakfast and beginning work on site by 8:30 a.m. The volunteers, although they carried out differing tasks, were all engaged in the hands-on aspect of helping Puerto Rican citizens.

“Our work, in my particular team, was primarily, but not completely, focused on stopping leaks,” O’Toole said. “At this point, it was about nine months after the last hurricane, and they still had water flowing into their homes.”

This meant students in her group were using water sealant internally and externally.

Teams, including Aguero’s and fellow volunteer Ali Khan’s, worked on the roofs, completing tasks such as painting and tarring. Although the work itself was rewarding, Khan discovered the people he encountered were an unanticipated perk.

“We met really nice people,” Kahn said. “I’m a vegetarian, so there was this house owner. [The first day] she didn’t know, so the next day she made food and she made special food for myself.”

Homeowners often made lunch for the volunteers as a way to show their gratitude.

Volunteers worked until about 4 p.m. each day, then stopped for a dinner break, returned to the dormitories they were staying in, showered, attended meetings, ate dinner and assisted in whatever was needed, such as helping O’Toole with laundry.

Although the students knew about the destruction in Puerto Rico, they said it was very different for them to experience it firsthand.

“It was overwhelming,” Kahn said. “I realized how much they need our help, how much more we can do and how we are working how we are playing our part and bringing communities together,” Khan said.

Both students are planning on returning to Puerto Rico.

“I’ve always wanted to go to a country and to give back, so the fact that it was a place that felt like it was home, it meant the world to me,” Aguero said.

Photo provided by Diana Aguaro