The president can sneer at Puerto Ricans and say “They want everything to be done for them.” But that is because he has not met Salvador Gabriel Gomez Colon. This ninth grader from San Juan is not waiting for anyone. He’s making things happen.
Ten days after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, 15-year-old Salvador Gomez Colon and his family are hunkered down in their apartment in San Juan, rationing food and water they stored before the storm hit. His mother Marta has been eating just one meal a day and small "tidbits" after that to ensure Salvador, his father, and his 80-year-old grandparents have enough to eat.
Even though this family lives in a building with a generator running intermittently, the simplest things have become impossible. Without running water they can only clean their laundry once a week. Still Salvador knows he's better off than many others on the island that was devastated by Maria.
Salvador is a ninth-grader at St. John’s School in San Juan. He lives in Condado. Anyone who knows Puerto Rico knows that means he goes to an elite private school and that he lives in the heart of wealth. Salvador is a scion of privilege. But that is where any similarity between the Gomez family and the Trumps ends. Unlike the Trump family, the Gomez family understand they have a role to play in their community. Salvador’s mother, Marta, raised her boy right.
"The entire power grid here is down. Some communities won't have power, water, clean clothes for many months," Salvador said."I felt a drive to help. I realized it was part of my duty as a citizen, for Puerto Rico," he says. "I thought about things that were needed. I knew there were lots of campaigns for food, money, but there were a lot of items that weren’t being addressed."
Searching for a way to help, he hit on an idea of how to bring light to those in darkness.
“The first idea that came to mind was about light. Thousands and thousands of families don’t have power and light. It’s a safety and public health issue. Imagine not being able to see anything from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. — it’s like solitary confinement. I mean, I’ve never been in solitary confinement, but I imagine that’s what it must be like.”
Is he waiting for someone to do this for him? No. Here’s a kid with no electricity and no Internet connectivity. All he has is a cell phone and heart. With nothing more than that, he has already made significant progress towards his goal in just a few days.
He felt compelled to launch a crowdfunding campaign called "Light and Hope for Puerto Rico" on fundraising platform Generosity. He has raised nearly $14,000 $35,000 $40,000 $50,000 of his $100,000 target. He wants to use the money to buy the portable lamps and washing machines for residents in some of the worst affected areas of Puerto Rico.
Salvador isn’t thinking local. One California-based company, d.light, responded by donating $500 to his campaign and offered a discount on their solar-powered lamps. Another firm, Omnivoltaic in Hong Kong, said it would donate 100 of its portable lights to his effort.
Even on a good day, that would be impressive. Someone should tell the president that Salvador did this in a country with no electrical power. From an island. In the middle of an ocean. A big ocean. And he didn’t wait for someone to do it for him.
No one does anything alone. With the help of his mother, Salvador reached out to Neha Misra, co-founder of Washington D.C-based non-profit Solar Sister. Solar Sister provides portable solar-powered lamps to communities without electricity in rural Africa. Marta sent her a text saying Salvador wanted to learn more about solar lamps and how to provide them to communities in need. Misra answered the call.
"Here is a 15-year-old, who's facing extreme despair himself, and he's moved to act on behalf of others," Misra said.
Salvador has no reliable internet connection, so Misra helped set up the online crowd funding campaign and is helping him monitor it.
"To be clear, this is his campaign, driven by him. He is guiding me."
Remember when you were in ninth grade? How far did you get in your efforts to make the world a better place? Now you get a second shot. Salvador needs our support.
Salvador, who just started ninth grade, said community activism is important to him. "My mom instilled it in me from when I was very little," he said. His family fully supports his effort. "My grandmother was so moved she started to cry," he said.
But his mother's advice was more direct.
"She told me if I want to do this, I have to make sure I go through with it to the end," he said.
Puerto Rico is going to rise up, but if it is going to thrive, it will be thanks to people like Salvador. This young man is the future. Let’s not keep him a secret. Share him with the world.
Monday, Oct 2, 2017 · 2:59:20 AM +00:00 · Victor Klemperer Respawned
Here are some of the people who have joined Salvador.
Marta Michelle Colon,
Ricardo Rivera,
Jean Tirri,
Juan Guillermo Herrans,
Kichi Beauchamp,
Carlos Dalmau,
Carmen Millie Garcia de Albarran, M.D.,
Julian Rivera Aspinall,
Catherine Cuello
Brad Israel,
Hollis Meminger,
Jill Van den Brule
and many more.
Now you can help. Give what you can. Tell a friend, or two.