We are at it again!
In November 2018, Bay Area Border Relief sent a 26-foot truck to TX full of much needed clothing and supplies for distribution at the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen and at a similar center in Brownsville, TX. It was a #CompassionCaravan!
In June 2019 we are sending another truck and need SF Bay Area friends to join this effort by sharing our flyer and getting the word out so that we can fill up the entire truck again! 
You don't have to be in the SF Bay Area to help support this effort. Donated $ will help pay for the truck rental, gas and driver. Each $5 donation will move the truck along approx 2 miles. By this calculation, we have so far reached the AZ/NM border...
Excess funds will be used to purchase additional needed clothing and supplies for the respite center, bus station and bridge groups, while the Bay Area Border Relief team is on-the-ground and on-site in TX in mid-June.
​Here is a PDF of the flyer to share around.
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

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​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 will be posted on the USF website later this week and we will include the link here once available.

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.

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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 soon in later June 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

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Supporting
​asylum seekers

June 2019

​December 2018

Plans are forming for another humanitarian mission in late June 2019. The  team will collaborate with SF Bay Area supporters from University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, Salesforce, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley's Humanitarian Respite Center, Good Neighbor Settlement House, Team Brownsville and other grassroots organizations to once again send support and basic supplies for newly arrived immigrants in McAllen and Brownsville, TX. 

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.