Bringing light to Puerto Rico

The 2017 hurricane season left Puerto Rico's 3.4 million residents grappling with devastation, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Maria. One of the major challenges was restoring the island’s aging electricity system. Months after the hurricane, more than half of the island's households still lacked access to electricity, leaving families without lights, refrigeration, air-conditioning, or internet.

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As local authorities worked to rebuild the power grid, iAID (now known as SmartAID) stepped in to provide immediate relief. Our Disaster Relief team arrived in Puerto Rico and received 4,000 solar-powered lights, which were distributed to families who lived without generators, unable to afford fuel, or living in homes that remained unsafe due to flooding. These solar-powered, portable, waterproof, and rechargeable lanterns provided much-needed light during a critical period, helping families regain some semblance of normalcy in the aftermath of the storm.

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Blending innovation with aid

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This iAID Solar Light Disaster Relief Technology Project in Puerto Rico could not have been made possible without the generous support of our partners – SoLight Design, Dr Alison Thompson of Studio Unite and DHL Global.

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Solight Design is a New York-based global social enterprise delivering affordable solar lighting solutions to those in need. Cofounded by Alice Chun, an architecture professor interested in solar-powered light. When Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake in 2010, Alice turned her studio at Columbia University into an innovation lab to develop solutions to help Haiti. The result was the SolarPuff™, a portable, water-resistant, cube-shaped, collapsible, rechargeable solar lantern.

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Alice also founded Studio Unite in 2010, a non-profit organization to help use architectural approaches to disaster relief. Studio Unite Executive Director, Dr Alison Thompson, a full time global humanitarian volunteer from Australia, was instrumental in making iAID’s Puerto Rican SolarPuff project a reality. Studio Unite acts as a liaison between local leaders, non-profits, community organizations and for-profit businesses to create a productive exchange of resources to facilitate the recovery and growth of communities in areas of need.

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With the generous logistic, customs clearance and freight service support of Deutsche Post DHL Group’s Disaster Response Team (DRT), who were deployed to support Puerto Rico’s recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, iAID was able to transport 45 cartons of SolarPuff lanterns to Puerto Rico from Japan.

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Corporate Responsibility is an integral part of DHL’s corporate strategy. With “Living Responsibility” as their motto, DHL has a strong focus on corporate responsibility including environmental protection (GoGreen), disaster management (GoHelp) and education (GoTeach) and support employee volunteerism (Global Volunteer Day, Living Responsibility Fund).

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Thank you to our partners and volunteers

We did this mission with tremendous amounts of help. It would not have been possible without the generous support of our partners So Light Design, Dr Alison Thompson of Studio Unite and Third Wave Volunteers, and the generous help of DHL Global. A special thank you to iAID's hardworking, kind volunteers. We appreciate you.

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