Bay Area Border Relief

A Bay Area Border Relief team of 24 volunteers has just returned from the southern TX border, where they assisted asylum-seeking families and children with basic needs, including food and clothing, at the tent encampment just over the international bridge from Brownsville, TX in Matamoros, Mexico. On three consecutive nights, the BABR team collaborated with Team Brownsville to prepare and serve meals for 1,000+ residents of the tent city. One additional evening meal, organized in conjunction with a local "hip-hop" pastor was paid for by donations to BABR and served by our team.

There are many posts on the trip on Bay Area Border Relief's Facebook page, and we are working on other summaries (lack of power is currently a hurdle).

Here is an initial press release post-trip. Thank you for your patience.

RECENT ACTIONS:

BABR Team members presented at De Anza College, 10/15/19

Container loaded with hundreds of boxes (10/13/19) and the truck takes off for southern TX to meet the BABR team of volunteers (10/14/19).

Congresswoman Jackie Speier's (CA-14) Town Hall, Canada College, 8/10/19
Bay Area Border Relief member Dr. Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga presented along with an asylum seeker currently residing in the SF Bay Area. BABR team members had tables and displays illustrating ways to help support children and families seeking asylum.

BABR members joined an annual convening of the Sisters of Mercy 8/3/19 in Burlingame, CA for a day of discussion focusing on activism at the U.S. border and ways to help asylum seekers.

Bay Area Border Relief member Dr. Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga accompanied 20 members of Congress organized by Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-14) on a return trip to Department of Homeland Security facilities in McAllen and Brownsville, TX (July 12-14, 2019).

LIGHTS FOR LIBERTY in Half Moon Bay on 7/12 and 750+ locations around the world to protest the human rights violations at immigration detention centers along the U.S. southern border.

In June, Bay Area Border Relief sent a second 26-foot truck (paid for by generous donations) full of much-needed clothing and supplies for distribution at the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, the Boys & Girls Club in McAllen, Team Brownsville and at a Brownsville church. Physical donations are no longer being collected at this time, although there may be another trip tentatively scheduled in October 2019. (Please save any potential donations until more information is available, or donate to local organizations like Samaritan House, Street Level Health, etc.)

Friends can still support Bay Area Border Relief's efforts by donating via bit.ly/BABRatPVF to fund urgent/current needs and supplies at the Humanitarian Respite Center.

Any questions? Please email: BayAreaBorderRelief@gmail.com
Donations may be directed to Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, our nonprofit fiscal sponsor via this link: bit.ly/BABRatPVF
or via Venmo @Lilli-Rey
Direct shipments can be sent to the new (as of June 2019) address:
Humanitarian Respite Center, Catholic Charities RGV, 111 S. 15th St, McAllen, TX 78501

The University of San Francisco hosted "The Undocumented Truth at the Border: A Conversation with Sister Norma Pimentel," at the McLaren Conference Center on April 29, 2019. Her presentation is available here.

Sister Norma is the inspirational founder/Executive Director of the Humanitarian Respite Center of Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley, McAllen, TX.

She also appeared on a Sunday, April 28, 2019 segment of 60 Minutes and is one of Fortune magazine's top 50 World's Greatest Leaders.

On April 28th over 150 attended "A Bridge Among Walls: Update from the Border," with Sister Norma at Our Lady of Angels gymnasium in Burlingame, CA.

These are some of the awesome notes and cards recently created by our partner, #ReclaimLove as a force for justice, in reaching asylum seeking families at the border and families who have endured separation. In a time of deep polarization and escalating hate, they are staging a cultural intervention and reclaiming love as a force for justice.
Your messages mean so much, especially to the kids! #ReclaimLove is working with us to send your caring notes and letters to families and children at the border. Now more than ever the Humanitarian Respite Center can use the LOVE! Please send in your notecards today through #ReclaimLove and our team will be sending them to the children, families and Sister Norma Seni Pimentel. In December 2018 our team hand-delivered 1000 cards and saw the joy it brought to so many. Next trip is coming up at the end of October 2019.
Love IS powerful--especially at the border.

Thank you for your support.
In solidarity,
BAY AREA BORDER RELIEF
www.BayAreaBorderRelief.org
@Border Relief Twitter
@Bay Area Border Relief Facebook
BayAreaBorderRelief@gmail.com

Humanitarian missions to support asylum seekers

OCT 19-25, 2019
If you'd like to learn more about typical tasks while at the Humanitarian Respite Center, please read this general overview. Tasks may be different upon our arrival, but this provides a glimpse of the organized chaos! Email us at BayAreaBorderRelief@gmail.com if you're interested in joining the group.
Collection sites and deadlines for donations and supplies have not yet been organized, but will be posted here when announced.

JUNE 19-JULY 2, 2019
The team served Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley's Humanitarian Respite Center, Good Neighbor Settlement House, Team Brownsville in support newly arrived immigrants in McAllen and Brownsville, TX.

NOV/DEC 2018
Collaborative group of 25 formed the Compassion Caravan to send a 26-foot truck of basic supplies, clothing, basic medicines, and toys from northern CA to southern TX for newly arrived immigrants at the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, TX. The BABR team also protested the treatment and demanded release of young detainees in the Casa Padre Southwest Keys immigration detention facility in Brownsville, TX. Team members included faculty of the USF School of Education and San Francisco State University, philanthropists, nurses, students and community volunteers.

JULY 2018
A group of 10, comprised of Bay Area Border Relief representatives plus the addition of University of San Francisco School of Education Marriage and Family Therapist professors and students spent five days in McAllen, TX offering trauma relief and humanitarian support to immigrants recently released from immigration detention.

JUNE 2018
Encouraged by Congresswoman Jackie Speier (CA-14) to take action, a group of San Francisco Bay Area volunteers in her jurisdiction decided to protest the recent family separations at the border in TX and traveled to support the congressional delegation's visit to detention facilities and volunteer at the Humanitarian Respite Center.