By Patrice Swick
We have been receiving around 100 refugees a day at our one
site alone. A bus usually brings them around 2pm. They receive a welcome so
they know that this is a safe place where we will do our best to meet their
needs. We explain meals times and general expectations are laid out. Lunch is
usually pizza or a volunteer group comes in and provides a meal. After they eat, they line up along the halls and wait to be registered. During registration
volunteers are in contact with our guests’ family members or friends who are
sponsoring them here in the states. Phone calls are made back and forth until
travel details are confirmed. Our guests stay with us until it is time to go to
the airport or bus station.
Donations of clothes and hygiene product are put to good
use. When families reach our border they often have very little. The little they
have is then taken when they are in detention. Babies in only diapers and kids
with no shoes is a common sight. Some days our clothing room is empty and all
we have to give is ‘lo siento mucho’. One day when we had clothes to give out,
a mother came in with her young child who was only a few years old. Her child
had worn out shoes and when we offered her a new pair she said ‘no, keep them
for the next child’. I can only imagine the sacrifices this
mother has made to find a peaceful home for her family.
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| Donated children socks asking the question we should each be asking. |
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