Mission Statement
Firmly standing by the belief that all human beings bear the right to health, EPM emerges as a riposte to the current public health crisis in our island, and mostly amongst those living in rural municipalities, areas bound to oblivion. Based on the harm reduction model, a non-judgmental approach to human behavior, our mission is to reduce the health-wise harm associated with active drug injection in rural PR.
History
El Punto en la Montaña, Inc (EPM) began operations on December 1, 2007: World AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) Day. It was 3 activists from the harm reduction movement in New York City and Puerto Rico (Eddie Santiago, Yesenia Aponte Meléndez, and Camila Gelpí Acosta) who founded EPM. We started in Cayey, a municipality with a high rate of drug use, and continued with Cidra, then Comerío, Aguas Buenas and Caguas. We started with a budget of $17,500 and 2 part-time employees, this team brought syringe exchange to the Central/Eastern area of our island-nation: Puerto Rico. He was then succeeded by Ivette Rodríguez, Fernando Janer and Joseph Carroll Miranda, who left their hearts on the field and strengthened this initiative to previously unforeseen levels. EPM is the only program serving these forgotten communities and the need to expand our service offering is always present.
What is a syringe exchange program? (English)
Syringe exchange programs (SEP) are entailed in a project of distributing new/sterile needles to injection drug users (IDU) while removing and safely disposing of used and potentially disease-infected ones from our communities. SEPs produce substantial health benefits by reducing the spread of HIV and decreasing rates of infection of other blood-borne pathogens. There is conclusive scientific evidence that syringe exchange programs are an effective public health intervention that reduces transmission of HIV. For instance, after 10 years of syringe exchange implementation in New York City, new HIV infections among IDU sharply declined by over 50%. A syringe that can prevent an HIV infection costs approximately 13 cents in Puerto Rico, while publically-funded HIV medical treatment costs over the lifetime of a person approximately half a million dollars. Thus, not only is SEP effective in public health terms, it is also tremendously cost effective for society.
Our Team
JuIian Berríos
Data & Web Manager
Board of Directors
Funders & Contributors
For the first 6 years, formerly CitiWide Harm Reduction (now BoomHealth) was EPM’s fiscal sponsor. We will always be grateful for their solidarity. Throughout the years, EPM has been supported in numerous ways by the following institutions and organizations. Thanks to all of you for your support!
