Inside 2025

Marks 15 Years Off The Grid

Dear OTG Supporters,

In 2025, Off-The-Grid Missions (OTG) continued its work guided by a core reality: Access Means Survival.

This year, OTG expanded its reach across the United States and internationally, responding to disasters and prolonged crises where Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, DeafBlind, and DeafDisabled (Deaf+) communities are often excluded from emergency systems. As our work scaled, it was recognized through public and sector-based achievements, including the Elevate Prize, and strengthened through collaborations with organizations and businesses that share our commitment to access and accountability, with new partnerships added this year, including United Airlines.

Below is an overview of OTG’s operations throughout 2025 and documents how access shaped survival for Deaf+ individuals and families worldwide.

Scaling Access in 2025

LA Wildfires

OTG Adapts Amid Complete System Failure

Wildfires across California created immediate health risks, with toxic airborne particles traveling up to 100–300 miles beyond burn zones. As evacuation timelines narrowed to minutes, emergency systems failed to account for Deaf+ people including non-Deaf with disabilities leaving many without accessible alerts, transportation, or appropriate support.

OTG’s response unfolded in three phases. Phase One focused on immediate access, distributing emergency aid including air purifiers and high-efficiency filters, masks, solar lights, food, and water for Deaf and Disabled individuals affected by smoke exposure and displacement. As access failures became more apparent, Phase Two expanded support for people with disabilities, customizing aid based on individual and family needs. OTG coordinated door-to-door delivery of requested essentials, accessibility and mobility devices, hygiene and medical-related supplies, and communication support, including home status checks for Deaf elders. Phase Three extended resources into surrounding Los Angeles regions as a preventive measure, positioning supplies and tools in case fire conditions intensified or shifted ensuring continuity of access where traditional systems remained unreliable.

Special thank you to Amazon Disaster Relief, Operation BBQ Relief, Flowstate ASL, and The ASL Shop for their collaboration in supporting the Deaf Community in Los Angeles.

Jamaica: Hurricane Melissa

OTG Adapts to Widespread Devastation in the Caribbean

OTG’s response in Jamaica builds on 15 years of work across the Caribbean (including Puerto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas) where access failures consistently place Deaf+ communities at risk during disasters.

Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 hurricane with 185 mile winds, caused widespread destruction across Jamaica, leaving many Deaf families displaced, without power, clean water, or access to reliable information. For Deaf communities, the absence of accessible alerts and recovery systems deepened isolation in the storm’s aftermath.

OTG’s response unfolded in two completed phases, shaped by rapidly changing conditions on the ground. Phase One focused on immediate survival and access. OTG worked alongside partnering Disaster Response NGOs, Deaf leaders, and Deaf organizations to bridge local resources with humanitarian aid—identifying urgent needs, restoring access to information, and delivering essential supplies. As conditions and resources shifted, Phase Two expanded aid inventory and distribution to reach additional Deaf+ individuals and families who remained cut off from services, this also included holiday food drives. This phase prioritized sustained support, addressing gaps left by delayed or inaccessible systems as communities worked to stabilize.

In 2026, OTG will begin Phase Three, building on this foundation to support longer-term recovery needs identified by the Deaf community while remaining responsive as conditions continue to evolve.

Special thank you to our partners: Food For The Poor - Jamaica, World Central Kitchen, Watts of Love; Deaf leaders and Deaf-led organizations: Deaf Can! Coffee, JSL Bible Translations, and the Optimist Club of Jamaica Deaf Community for their collaboration in Jamaica.

Haiti – Access in a Collapsed System

OTG’s Longest-Running Program, Serving Deaf Families in Haiti for Over 12 Years

Haiti Remains Among the World’s Most Difficult Environments for Care and Aid

Widespread displacement, food insecurity, and gang control have severely restricted access to hospitals and essential services in Haiti. The withdrawal of international aid has deepened these gaps. In this environment, Deaf+ people face compounded risk, with no accessible emergency systems, reliable transport to care, or safe routes to hospitals. OTG continues to navigate these conditions to provide accessible evacuations, medical accompaniment, and life-saving aid.

In 2025, OTG supported over 300 Deaf families across Haiti, including over 500 Codas (Children of Deaf adults). Medical needs intensified as hunger, displacement, and lack of clean water led to preventable illness. OTG coordinated repeated medical evacuations and ensured communication access inside medical facilities. Among the most critical interventions were high-risk emergency labor evacuations, where Deaf women experiencing severe complications were safely supported through childbirth. Without OTG’s accessible communication, transport, and medical advocacy, these outcomes would have been life-threatening.

Alongside emergency response, OTG expanded its Safe Haven for Deaf women and girls, providing recovery support, meals, education, and job training. OTG also sponsored Deaf+ children and adults to safely exit harmful environments, covering transport, housing, food, and education. In 2025, women from the Safe Haven took on paid frontline rolessupporting OTG’s response. In a collapsed system, sustained access—led by Deaf community members—remains the difference between isolation and survival.

[Photos above of OTG’s team operating safe route evacuations, providing communication access in the hospital, and access to medical – 100% of the operations are paid for with donations]

OTG has operated in Haiti for years, and in 2021 our campaign to end violence against Deaf+ people unfolded amid escalating instability, including targeted attacks on Deaf+ communities and the rapid collapse of public systems. Since then, gang control, displacement, disease outbreaks, and the withdrawal of aid organizations have further isolated Deaf+ individuals –reinforcing the need for OTG’s sustained, Deaf-led response.

Special thank you to Centre Hospitalier de Fontaine Foundation and Food For The Poor - Haiti.

Gaza: Delivering Under Constraint

OTG Adapts to Limited Resources

There Is No Clear End Point To Crisis

Unlike natural disasters that allow time to recover and rebuild, ongoing bombardment creates repeated displacement, loss, and survival under constant threat. This reality has continued throughout OTG’s response efforts and has only intensified.

This year, OTG’s work required constant adaptation as borders closed, inflation surged, supplies became scarce, and access changed without warning. Our team has been displaced countless times, often working from unsafe and inhumane conditions to continue supporting others. Despite these constraints, OTG adjusted aid based on what was locally available by prioritizing food that could still be sourced, hygiene items, water access, mobility and vision support (including glasses for those losing vision due to blast exposure), and essential communication tools for Deaf people cut off from information.

Since 2023, hundreds of Deaf people have been killed in Gaza. Many more remain displaced and unreachable by traditional aid systems. Through repeated aid delivery and follow-up, OTG’s local teams and partners have witnessed individuals and families they previously supported no longer alive when they returned to assist again. While tents, food, and local distributions cannot replace safety or stability, they remain a critical bridge for survival and a message to Deaf families that they have not been forgotten.

Special thank you to our partner Donation Deaf Gaza for your hard work, collaboration, and dedication in support of Deaf communities in Gaza..

Building Access Beyond the Field

While much of OTG’s work happens on the ground, critical efforts also take place behind the scenes. In 2025, OTG continues to engage with humanitarian and corporate leaders to raise awareness of access gaps facing Deaf+ communities and to help strengthen pathways for future collaboration.

Photos taken with Off-The-Grid Missions’ global partners in Disaster Response: United Airlines, Airlink, World Central Kitchen, Red Cross, Good 360, Watts of Love, The Elevate Foundation, and Project Camp.

Access Begins and Ends with Basic Human Decency

Every action OTG takes on the frontlines is a deliberate response to extreme neglect, discrimination, Audism, systemic barriers, and violence. Whether at borders, in hospitals, shelters, refugee camps, or through moments of public advocacy, our team continues to stand with Deaf+ communities whose needs are too often ignored and amplifying voices that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Year after year, the same pattern persists in disasters: a Hierarchy of Privilege determines who reaches safety and who is left behind. In response, OTG operates with a Hierarchy of Focus, centering Deaf+ communities most often cut off from humanitarian aid. What has evolved is how this work is sustained. Through trusted partnerships that support accessible communications, logistics, and coordination, OTG remains present and responsive even as crises deepen and overlap across regions.

Resource constraints remain real, and difficult decisions are part of every response. But through collaboration and trust built over time, OTG continues to reach communities who would otherwise be left without support—proving that access is not optional, but essential.

Thank you for taking the time to read our 2025 Year in Review. Your continued trust makes this work possible, and we are grateful to move forward together into 2026.

With appreciation,

Angela Maria Nardolillo
Founder & Executive Director
On behalf of the entire Off-The-Grid Missions team

Follow us online @offthegridmissions

2025 Transparency Awards

In 2025, OTG Once Again Ranks Among the Top 0.1% of Charities Nationwide for Transparency

Amidst chaos and extreme challenges, OTG remains committed to transparency by sharing situational reports, accessible media, and financial updates, even while navigating disasters, communication barriers, fundraising struggles, and limited administrative capacity. In 2025, OTG was awarded the Elevate Prize by public vote, and once again proudly achieved a Four-Star rating on Charity Navigator, and the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid/Guidestar —placing OTG once again in the top 0.1% of charities nationwide for transparency.

Thank you to our 2025 Sponsors & Partners!