Please read this first hand account from Puerto Rican Community Leader and local (Los Osos) business owner Grisel Puig-Snider. Then call and email your representatives. More information – including the scripts for emails and phone calls – and details about our phone banking event, are below.

From Grisel Puig-Snider:
“I feel so distraught at this moment. I just got off the phone with my aunt who just arrived by plane from the island with her 3 grandkids…she waited with thousands and thousands of people at the airport and finally made a plane to the states.

She works in one of the main hospitals in Puerto Rico, where she says there are shipping containers full of dead people who have passed because of lack of medicine, food, and clean water. There are no funeral services, no way to bury all of these bodies, and the worst part is that there is so little hope. No banks are open, and even if people have money there is nothing in the supermarkets to buy.

My auntie said that until she reached my mom’s home in Dallas she had gotten no news of the world outside…people in Puerto Rico have no idea if help is coming, they have no place to go, there is no work, no schools open for the children, no services, and they are afraid…they are seeing people dying and have no way to help them. Children are begging their parents for a sip of water but there is only dirty, bacteria- and virus-ridden water available.

She was sobbing and feeling guilty for having her first hot shower in the 3 weeks since the hurricanes began while her husband and family are still stuck on the island. But she was one of those fortunate enough to make a plane and get out with three of her grandkids to safety for a few days.

I am writing this post to be her voice, to share this horrifying reality of the island’s current state that we here on the mainland are not hearing. Please, I urge everyone that knows me and everyone who does not, please help me save my family and friends on the island by urging our government representatives to SEND THEM RELIEF AID AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

As I write this post and my husband and I put our 5 year old boy to bed, the first thing he asks for is a glass of water. And all I can think of is what if it was us in the island and I had to tell him “no” because all that’s available is dirty, diseased water!!

Please act on this one! Even sending one of these ready scripts pasted into an email will help! We need all the help we can get. In all humility and gratitude, thank you!”

Use these phone and email scripts for representatives Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Diane Feinstein, Kamala Harris, local House members, and Governor Brown as well as heads of the RNC and DNC. Each can affect change in different ways. Ryan and McConnell can get an aide package for it. Harris, Feinstein, and local House members can pressure for an aide package to be put together. RND and DNC chairs can pressure within their parties to get the word out. Governor Brown can send CA National Guard. People who live out of the 24th CA district or out of CA should be calling their local representatives. The scripts are easy to adjust.

We invite you to join us to phone bank with us to improve the humanitarian response to the crisis in Puerto Rico.
*Date: October 17, 2017
*Time: 10am-12pm
*Location: 75 Higuera St. Suite 110
*Bring: a phone charger and internet ready device. We will supply script and wifi.
*Action: We will be calling representatives to request additional emergency relief funding, indefinite suspension of the Jones Act, and a Congressional Delegation to visit our beloved island territory.

INFORMATION ABOUT PUERTO RICO
In the weeks since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the US mainland recovery effort has been nothing less than a travesty. Therefor, Women’s March San Luis Obispo joins with local Leader of the Puerto Rican Community, Grisel Puig-Snider, to demand increased humanitarian aid for Puerto Rico. There are 3.4 million people in the American territory of Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are US citizens, however they do not have the right to vote in presidential election. Response to Hurricane Maria, which knocked out power to the entire island, has been slow. At this time only a portion of the island’s residents have drinking water and food. Death tolls are feared to rise quickly and it’s likely many more people have already lost their lives than has been reported because information is difficult to gather. We must take action to stop this devastation from continuing.

Grisel Puig-Snider is owner of local business Sacred Remedies, an all natural skin care line. She is a Los Osos resident who is Puerto Rican in origin. Ms. Puig-Snider is advocating for emergency relief aid for the people of Puerto Rico who are facing a humanitarian crisis due to lack of water, medicine, and federal aid. While Puerto Ricans are US citizens they cannot vote for President and have no power on the Congressional floor. Ms. Puig-Snider believes WE are their voice. She has partnered with Women’s March SLO to create a four-pronged action plan which includes phone and email contact with Party and Congressional representatives.