Bridging the Border Bulletin

Bulletin Issue 6: Bridging the Border

A U.S.-Mexico collaboration bringing factual news and critical resources for families on the border. Click here to view our past bulletins and learn more about our work!

Teachers and Tablets at Work – the Good News at the Border!

Thanks for your interest in the Teachers and Tablets campaign. Your investment in the education of migrant and asylum-seeking children at the border is making a long-lasting impact. Your contributions enable FESAC Nogales to support local organizations that provide the children in migrant and asylum-seeker families with education, safety, stability, and a chance at a brighter future.

Left: A student at Casa de la Misericordia explores Earth virtually. Geography class can be personal for the students, as they learn how to interpret maps and gain an understanding of the migration routes taken by them and/or their families.

Accomplishments (last 6 months, Feb-July):

20 iPads and school supplies have been purchased and are in use at education sites, Deijuven and Casa de la Misericordia.
Three local teachers have been trained and are funded by FESAC’s ongoing campaign.
250 students total have been enrolled in the program. Note: From September 2020 to April 2021, 60 of them were able to cross into the USA for the asylum process. This takes between 3 weeks and 3 months.
70+ families are participating in the program.

The use of FESAC-provided iPads for heretofore unavailable online education is an important step towards preparing students for evolving academic and professional environments. We appreciate how much has been accomplished by a remote team of staff and supporters. In recognition of the fact that there will be thousands more children coming to the border who will need this program, the work has just begun! We have raised $13,372, 67% of our campaign goal and are transitioning into the next phase of the project - a focus on expanding the number of tablets and teachers to meet the growing need. Use this link to help launch this next phase!

A teacher in the program, María Guadalupe Moreno Ruiz, at Casa de la Misericordia, talks about the impact of the program on the mental health of the children: "The classes are a tool for the children, providing a form of relief from their burdens without obligating them to speak on past experiences. This is also helpful for their families, as lawyers and psychologists may detect individual issues and more easily present their (asylum) case."

As FESAC Nogales works to expand the program and secure funding for the long-term, we would like to emphasize that classes serve not only for the retention of knowledge and development of skills, but also as a source of stability and security for the students who have experienced the triple trauma of migration, a broken asylum system and a pandemic.

Maya's Gift

This is a sweet story of the power of a simple act of compassion and kindness. It happened on my 80thbirthday. On the table with all the congratulatory cards stood out a small beautifully hand painted box that encouraged donations to a cross border agency, the Border Community Alliance (BCA) I helped found some 7 years ago on the Arizona/Mexico border.

In asking for “spare change for social change” for border programs, the creator of the box, my 14-year-old granddaughter Maya, put her heart, talent, and compassion into what was for me the best birthday card ever. I had no idea that she was doing this nor did anyone else in the family. It worked (!), as in a few hours over $230 dollars found their way into this luminous box. Those dollars are already at work assisting a shelter in Nogales Mexico that is caring for hundreds of families with children seeking asylum from violence and poverty.

Why did she do it? Maya said that she knew that this was important to me. She felt that these families need and deserve our attention at a time when many are not paying attention to the border. She said, simply, “their lives mean as much as ours.”

Most of all, Maya wants anyone reading this “to help, anyway they can.” May the Bulletin you are reading now inspire you and your family to become as creatively caring as Maya was on that day.

Robert Phillips, Senior Advisor to FESAC

Spotlights: FESAC supports and coordinates the programs of NGOs (nonprofits) in the Mexican border town of Nogales, Sonora. Here are two outstanding examples.

Manitas Que Hablan Nogales, A History Making Graduation!

Top: Sign language interpreter Nicole, Perla Jazmín, Ms. Olga, Daniela Guadalupe, and Luis Felipe.

Bottom: Alma Cota de Yanez, Daniela Guadalupe, Teresa Hernandez, Luis Bacasehua, Ana Bacasehua. Teresa and Ana are founders of Manitas que Hablan Nogales.

On June 16th, for the first time four hearing-impaired university students graduated with a license in primary and pre-primary education (LPP). Three of the four, Luis Felipe, Daniela Guadalupe, and Perla Jazmín, presented their theses at Centro Regional de Formación Profesional Docente de Sonora (CRESON). CRESON has 17 centers for higher education in Sonora, that prepare individuals for careers in teaching and education.

The students are affiliated with and supported by Manitas que Hablan, an organization that encourages and supports the academic and professional development of hearing impaired children and youth. Manitas que Hablan IAP was created by parents and families seeking opportunities for the social integration of hearing-impaired youth. Having experienced the rejection of their children by the public schools, these families formed a community that encourages and supports youth to achieve long-term success. Central to their mission is inspiring youth and recognizing their right to education and personal success.

FESAC Nogales and Manitas que Hablan have a long-standing relationship that has encouraged students and their families to succeed in a variety of academic and professional settings. Manitas que Hablan Nogales started in a tiny kitchen in a Nogales maquila worker neighborhood. With FESAC’s encouragement, 7 mothers of 7 hearing impaired children who had no access for inclusion in public schools after 6^th grade came together to get their children the chance to continue their education. They had a strong commitment to see their children educated through college (none of the parents had a college degree). 13 years later, because of this program, babies who are born hearing disabled are diagnosed early, and their families can start their education using Mexican sign language (LSM Lenguaje de Senas Mexicano).

Fundación Esposos Rodríguez (FER)

Fundación Esposos Rodríguez (FER) is a nonprofit institution that has supported the education of Sonoran youth for 75 years. In 2020, their first year of granting, they gave 2,551 scholarships at the Bachelor and Master levels! FER was founded by Abelardo L. Rodriguez and his wife, Aída S. Rodriguez to meet the needs of under-resourced youth in the Sonoran region. This spring, $20,000 for scholarships were donated to the program by a supporting US corporation.

FESAC Executive Director Alma Cota de Yanez noted that: “this is a first-time collaboration between FESAC and FER. It will encourage cross border philanthropic collaboration. The topics of education and health are always a priority, especially during and post the pandemic. This program will encourage international donations to support the Nogales NGOs that FESAC is helping to develop.”

Above: FER representative and FESAC Nogales executive director.

Watch the FESAC team grow! Three student interns join our remote team this summer.

Welcome Nina Theisen, Catherine Born and McKenzi Thompson to the FESAC Nogales Team!

Nina Theisen is an undergraduate

student at Brown University studying International and Public Affairs on the Development track. She is particularly interested in studying the effects of development on the environment, immigration, and other social justice and human rights issues. Outside of the classroom, Nina enjoys teaching adult English language classes through the Brown ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) program. She is also the Co-President of Casa Machado, Brown’s program house for Spanish language and culture. Nina joined the FESAC Nogales project as a volunteer in the summer of 2021 and is very excited to be working on social media curation and fundraising.

Catherine Born is a native of Berkeley, California. She earned her BA in Spanish Language and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. In addition to a career in the field of education in the United States, Spain, Japan, and France, she has interned and volunteered at international nonprofit organizations with a focus on human rights, migration, and refugees (including a summer internship with the Border Community Alliance in 2013). Catherine joined FESAC in the summer of 2021.

McKenzi Thompson is a recent graduate of Mills College, where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. During her time at Mills, she developed an interest in reproductive justice and pursued this interest further by enrolling in a doula certification course. To expand her knowledge of how to address health disparities related to reproductive health, she applied to Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in pursuit of her Master of Science in Public Health in Global Epidemiology. McKenzi is eager to use her experiences and the knowledge she will gain at Rollins School of Public health to help address global and local reproductive health issues. More recently, McKenzi was selected to be an intern with FESAC. She will research reproductive health issues affecting migrant and asylum-seeking women at the Arizona-Sonora border.

How To Support

Given that this crisis will go on for months, a regular monthly contribution will give FESAC a predictable income stream. If you know people who may be interested in this cause, send them to the FESAC contact on this bulletin or direct them to FESAC Sr Advisor Bob Phillips at [email protected] for further information. Your contribution is tax deductible. It will make the families at the border know that they are not forgotten and that their lives matter!

BCA and FESAC Nogales have launched a GoFundMe campaign, “Teachers and Tablets for Children at the Border”, focused on providing educational opportunities to migrant and asylum seeker families’ children. To support our current campaign, please click the button below. You will be directed to our GoFundMe webpage and find more detailed information on Teachers and Tablets for Children at the Border. We work closely with Border Community Alliance (BCA), a US Nonprofit based in Tubac, Arizona, to bring resources, education and hope to the Nogales community. Help us provide quality education to children in border communities so that they can recapture their future!

Donate Now

FESAC Nogales | [email protected] | Website