Ahora is an imperative – the Spanish word meaning “now” – and for residents in Carite barrio, Guayama, in central eastern Puerto Rico, the urgency to save their vulnerable home can’t be overstated. Ahora Inc. is a resident-led nonprofit founded in 2021 to find solutions to their many challenges: flooding, water contamination, air pollution, extreme weather, erosion, and biodiversity loss. Carite barrio’s residents, 99% of whom identify as People of Color, with 49.4% living below the poverty line, share the trauma of five hurricanes, an earthquake, and innumerable mudslides in just the last decade. While tourism-dependent areas of Puerto Rico have been rebuilt, places like Carite are still in disaster-recovery mode, with no help in sight. Ahora is working to address urgent community needs, which include equity for FEMA hurricane response, affordable high-speed internet access, hardening mountainous roads against extreme run-off events, local micro-grids to distribute generation and transportation, and access to safe water and food.
At Ahora’s farming laboratory on Kaleli Farm, community members share traditional agro-ecological methods.
Ahora is a grassroots environmental justice group dedicated to building community resilience. Through their innovative farming laboratory at Kaleli Farm, they are developing sustainable agricultural techniques to enhance food security and disaster preparedness. In addition to their food sovereignty efforts, they are exploring nature-based solutions to restore ecosystems and provide protection from the impacts of natural hazards – particularly flooding and landslides – in an area ravaged by hurricanes, earthquakes, and inadequate infrastructure. Supported by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s 2023 National Coastal Resilience Fund, Ahora collaborates with local partners like Carite 3.0 and Asociación de Residentes de La Margarita, Inc. to involve the most vulnerable community members in developing ecosystem restoration and disaster mitigation strategies. Working alongside the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Silver Jackets, they are also creating public awareness campaigns about water runoff and community safety. Working hand-in-hand with Carite’s residents, Ahora is turning community ideas into action to create a more resilient and sustainable future for Carite and Puerto Rico.
Ahora does community outreach, such as the meeting above in 2024, to share information on environmental risks, hazards, and mitigation strategies like nature-based solutions to flooding. Collaborating with neighbors, they are developing best practices to revitalize and secure their communities.