The goTenna Mesh x PR Reconnects Project - FUNDED

Puerto Rico suffered tremendously in the throes of Hurricane maria, and is still suffering. It needs to be rebuilt. quickly. 

goTenna partnered with PR Reconnects and Starting Point Inc to take first and crucial steps towards the road to recovery by deploying hundreds of goTenna Mesh to bridge crucial communications.  Service is still down in most municipalities, and goTenna Mesh devices are igniting and sustaining connectivity during rebuild. Thank you for helping us help PR!

MESSAGE RECEIVED.

Challenges to everyday life in Puerto Rico range from a lack of basic household items and health care to security. The logistics involved in getting supplies and goods to those who need them and putting infrastructure back in place are daunting. Each day that goes by, more people suffer:  we have met people with type 2 diabetes that are at risk of losing their extremities because they can’t communicate their need for insulin; elderly people have been sleeping on their own feces for days, even weeks, as requests for diapers have not reached the NGOs, community leaders and authorities; clean water is nowhere to be found.  The missing resource in many of these disastrous circumstances is COMMUNICATION. 

The government relies on commercial services which are currently offline and unavailable. The FCC has been publishing daily reports on cellphone availability and it has become clear that – outside the metropolitan area – the infrastructure is still too frail to connect people, hospitals, and other critical venues to those who can help them.

Time is of the essence: people are losing their jobs, houses and lives. We need to deploy existing technologies and make them available to our citizens now so that crucial communications can happen.  

IntroDucing The goTenna Mesh x PR RECONNECTS PROJECT

• PR Reconnects is seeking to deploy up to 300 goTenna Mesh to cover most of the municipalities without cell service
• We plan to establish clusters of 7-10 goTenna Mesh devices (depending on terrain challenges) in municipalities along with a local text messaging “backbone” network
• We will distribute up to 10 goTenna Mesh devices to Point of Contacts (POCs) at each municipality. These POC may include doctors, school personnel, community leaders, or other first responders
• PR Reconnects is partnering with other teams in Puerto Rico deploying text messaging communication devices as well to help increase coverage to and from the SMS devices with goTenna Mesh, thus working as a communication bridge between two deployments
• By connecting first responders & key community leaders, hundreds of thousands of people living in the central mountain region will get aid faster, such as Barranquitas, which is already benefiting from this deployment

 Please help us reconnect the people of Puerto Rico now and give them the best chances of surviving and ultimately thriving this horrific tragedy.  

Every dollar counts: goTenna is matching all donations 1:1, so make your dollar (and ours!) count. 

Please pledge whatever you can. We want to see this project fully funded by Thanksgiving! Any dollars above and beyond will go to Starting Point Inc to empower student-led entrepreneurship at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, thus contributing to Puerto Rico's long-term economic recovery. For more information on this initiative, please email elyssa@gotenna.com.