BY ISN STAFF | April 23, 2021
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and Jesuit Refugee Service Mexico introduced this week the beginning of a brand new program designed to answer the wants of refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced individuals on the U.S.-Mexico border. The brand new program, known as Caminar Contigo, will purpose to scale back struggling, to enhance psychological well being and psychosocial wellbeing, and to lower violations to the authorized rights for refugees, asylum seekers, and different displaced individuals within the Ciudad Juarez and El Paso area. JRS will present info, help, and different authorized and psychological well being and psychosocial help (MHPSS) companies.
Picture courtesy of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
“The problems on the border of the US and Mexico have usually left hundreds of individuals, anonymous and faceless, within the headlines of our papers, however they’re our brothers and sisters, and we’re dedicated to strolling with them, recognizing their inherent dignity and exhibiting them our solidarity and help,” stated JRS Mexico director Patricia Hernandez Lopez.
Rules put into place by the U.S. and Mexican governments in addition to rising violence in Central America have brought about vital challenges on the border. Persons are arriving on the southern border of the US to hunt security solely to search out that they need to anticipate vital quantities of time to have their instances heard. Their lives have already been disrupted, their communities usually damaged, and their help networks disjointed, and but their struggling has develop into protracted.
“It’s our mission to stroll with those that have been forcibly displaced, and although we now have been in a position to help this mission around the globe, we’re proud to broaden our mission right here in the US,” stated Joan Rosenhauer, government director of JRS/USA. “The necessity to finish struggling and to help individuals in search of security on our southern border continues to develop and we should reply.”
Maria Torres, a scientific psychologist, utilized anthropologist, and knowledgeable who has served migrant and refugee teams within the area for greater than 20 years, will lead the work the U.S. facet, whereas extra management will probably be employed to guide JRS Mexico’s work.
Partnerships with native service businesses—particularly shelters and different authorized service suppliers—will probably be a key factor towards constructing a robust program and connecting with displaced individuals in want of authorized and MHPSS companies. JRS/USA and JRS Mexico will collaborate to make sure continuity and high quality of companies for asylum seekers of all walks of life, on either side of the border.
The dedication via this program is to be with those that are in search of security and safety, it’s to “stroll with you, caminar contigo.”
