The Ripple Effect – Ep. 3 | National Geographic Presents: IMPACT With Gal Gadot
GAL: "People aren't statistics."
19-year-old Arianna said this when she lived through one of the worst natural disasters in Puerto Rico's history, leaving her friends, family and neighbors without access to clean water. Seeing how deeply real lives have been impacted by this crisis, Arianna is creating solutions. This is her Impact.
ARIANNA (off-screen): When the world sees Puerto Rico, a lot of people see us as this vacationing spot, like, "Oh, look, it's beautiful Puerto Rico," and sometimes, that's all they think of us. But what they don't really think about is there's more than three million people living here in Puerto Rico having struggles. Growing up, we would always have to have that worry of, like, "When can we go to the supermarket, 'cause we don't have food in the fridge? When's the money coming in?" It was a little bit emotionally difficult for me. Hurricane Maria happened and it just got worse.
MAN (off-screen): It's 6:37 in the morning and Hurricane Maria is hitting us pretty hard in Puerto Rico, Carolina.
ARIANNA (off-screen): The water authority is responsible for giving everyone access to water, but politics, bureaucracy, corruption, you know, it's something that makes that process a lot slower. A lot of these water sources are extremely toxic and they're very dangerous to people's health. Some people don't have a choice. Some people are obligated to just grab water from that water source, just to survive. I knew there had to be a solution to the water crisis. But in a Latino culture, a lot of the time, being women, we're told to be quiet, you know, to not really say anything, to not say our opinion. (speaking Spanish). If you keep your mouth shut, the prettier you look. So, that was a phrase that I was told a lot when I was a kid.
But I found this group of people in college who had this vision of, not only giving people clean water, but making their lives better. That was when I realized, like, if they can do it, like, why can't I?
ARIANNA (off-screen): All of those negative comments motivated me to help solve the water crisis and reach every single person here, by having that access to clean water. So, right now, we're getting to the community in Gurabo; this is really uphill. It's a little difficult to drive, um... But yeah, these are the things we have to do to get to these communities and I, I, I honestly don't mind, but this is really uphill! Oh! Ah! I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't have a lot of experience driving in the mountains, but ay, there's a first time for everything, so.
ARIANNA (off-screen): When I go to the communities, I always like hearing people's stories and their backgrounds. That helps me understand what are, not only, like, physically what happened to them, but more like, emotionally, how did all of this affect them because psychologically, having lack of access to water, having that constant uncertainty, is really scary for them, and you can see it when you talk to them. You can see it when they tell you their stories. (speaking Spanish).
ARIANNA: Claro. A lot of these communities, since 2017, have had to get used to the fact that the system is not gonna get fixed any time soon. This has been so many years of hopelessness, you know, and with something that is so vital. The Government has failed us. We need more people being proactive. There's Puerto Ricans here who need help, that are not getting that help from the United States Government.
People aren't statistics, like, they're people. A problem here that we have in Puerto Rico is that a lot of the youth is leaving, you know, to just find other opportunities outside of Puerto Rico, and what we're left with is a population mainly of the elderly. A lot of people, their first impression of me and of my team, it's like, "Oh, wow, like, they're really young". I guess it's really shocking to see us, like, "Wow, these kids are taking action."
ARIANNA (off-screen): I want them to know that there is someone out there that can help them. And being able to be a part of a solution, I know that we can help them lead a better life. We can not only filter water, but we can heal people. Mm-mm.
ARIANNA (off-screen): The big filter that goes into the rivers, it's usually for communities that use their, their nearby water source for any activity, so that they can safely receive water. And then the home filtration device is more so that we can connect it directly into these homes' water pipes so that the water can be directly filtered.
ARIANNA: Okay...
ARIANNA (off-screen): A lot of the times, we don't believe that what we're doing is enough for the community and that we're not doing something for the world. We second guess ourselves a lot, so that has happened to me a lot, a lot of insecurity, a lot of anxiety. Am I capable of doing this? I'm only 19. So, I have a lot to learn and to be able to take on this project and to know that we can make an impact and we can change the world.
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Captioned by Cotter Media Group.