In September of 2017 Hurricane Maria cut a swath across the Caribbean causing destruction and devastation on several islands including Puerto Rico. The Category 5 hurricane is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to impact these islands and was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since 1998. Maria left no portion of Puerto Rico untouched, leading to almost 3,000 deaths, and widespread destruction of homes, businesses and infrastructure on the island. Hundreds lived for months without power or water.
In March of 2018, students from MIT and Brown University made a trip to Puerto Rico which served as a pilot for ServeUP Puerto Rico. It was a fruitful trip as students sought to serve others and learned much in the process. ServeUP Puerto Rico returned to the island in March of 2019. For three weeks students from various New England campuses worked alongside residents of Puerto Rico to help rebuild lives by rebuilding homes and schools. ServeUP will be returning in March, 2020 in a continued effort to serve the communities of Puerto Rico.
Once again we will partner with those agencies and churches that are residents of Puerto Rico and have provided an abiding presence of service in this time of need. The groups that we will partner with in 2020 include SBP and Hunger Corp.
