Sylvia’s Heart

Let’s Share the Sun is my highlight every year. I’ve been very fortunate to be involved with the organization for the past three years via its partnership with Wood Mackenzie.

To me, the story behind Let’s Share the Sun is one of partnership, love, and hope. LSTS’s and WoodMac’s efforts to provide a solar system to shelters for women of domestic violence fully embody the power of the sun. The solar arrays installed in Casa Julia de Burgos and Hogar Nueva Mujer showcase how, by providing energy resiliency to a community, you can also support gender equity and provide a safe space for families in need.

Gender equity is an issue very close to my heart. How is it possible that your partner, the person supposed to love you and care for you, can inflict such damage to their own family? No one should ever suffer from violence or neglect, even less so from someone who is supposed to love them. No one should ever endure violence disguised as love.

In my first trip to Puerto Rico, I gave my heart to Casa Julia. I was deeply inspired by their mission and by the efforts of all the women fighting against domestic violence. I gave my heart to all the women in Casa Julia: the team working to give families a glimpse of a future full of hope, safety, and love; and to all the women and their families that were brave enough to escape from a cycle of violence, which is extremely difficult to leave.

My heart will stay with them until one day, hopefully, the shelter is not needed anymore.