Syracuse University’s Hendricks Chapel is sponsoring relief trips to Puerto Rico to rebuild and provide aid to communities still recovering after Hurricane Maria devastated the territory 14 months ago.

The student volunteers will likely provide supplies, rebuild homes and assist in cleanup efforts as the island’s needs adjust from humanitarian relief to rebuilding, said Baptist Campus Chaplain Devon Bartholomew, in an email.

There will be two relief trips in March and May 2019. A third trip was scheduled for Jan. 5-11, but it was canceled due to a shortened timeline, Bartholomew said.

The relief efforts will not be localized to a particular area in Puerto Rico, but they will instead be concentrated according to the needs of the community that day.

“Needs change every day, and we can’t predict the exact site that we will be working in March or May,” Bartholomew said.

The trips are in partnership with Send Relief, a national disaster relief nonprofit organization. The Baptist chaplaincy has worked with the Christian organization for many years, Bartholomew said.

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Jonathan Santiago, SU’s former Baptist chaplain, is currently the director of Send Relief’s center in Puerto Rico.

“We believe in his work, and we are thankful for his heart [and] for his home,” Bartholomew said.

The Baptist chaplaincy has nearly 10 years of experience in disaster relief efforts, Bartholomew said. The chaplaincy has provided aid in the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, as well as the 2015 Nepal earthquake, among other natural disasters.

“After Hurricane Maria, we discussed what role Hendricks Chapel would take in meeting the needs of Puerto Rico,” Bartholomew said.

The 2019 relief efforts follow a December 2017 trip to San Juan in which about 20 SU students worked alongside Southern Baptist Disaster Relief to participate in various humanitarian activities, including distributing water filtration systems and cleaning up homes affected by the storm. Bartholomew and Ibrahim Malik, the Muslim assistant chaplain at Hendricks, were the trip’s chaperones.  

Students must submit an application for the 14 remaining spots via SU’s OrgSync portal. The chosen volunteers will receive disaster relief and team-building training prior to the trips.

Each trip is estimated to cost approximately $1,000. The price includes the cost of a round-trip flight from the John F. Kennedy International Airport to San Juan, as well as additional transportation, insurance and service fees. Students are expected to raise funds for the trip and will be taught how to do so.

Jack Wilson, president of SU’s Graduate Student Organization, said the relief trips are an opportunity for graduate students to “do some good” in an area that needs it.

Wilson said he would encourage graduate students to apply for the relief trips to aid an area that has “kind of been ignored.” He added that the storm’s aftermath was worsened by the lack of attention.

“Fallout from Hurricane Maria was far, far worse than it ever needed to be,” Wilson said.

The Category 4 hurricane landed in Puerto Rico on Sep. 20, 2017. With winds peaking at 155 mph, the storm triggered flash flooding and left an estimated 2,975 people dead.

Nearly 43 percent of the island’s residents were without electricity in January 2018, according to Vox. The blackout continued through August and was named the largest power outage in United States history.

After the relief trips are over, Hendricks Chapel will continue to help Puerto Rico,  Bartholomew said.

“We plan to continue our work to support and assist in the rebuild of Puerto Rico,” he said.

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Published on December 4, 2018 at 11:00 pm

Contact Emma: [email protected]