June 2019 Donations

Crisis at the Border

This whole fucking mess with immigration and the concentration camps at the Mexican Border is so sickening that I can't sleep some nights. It's horrifying to think of what those people are going through, especially the kids, and it's awful to sit here in my home so far away and feel like I can't do anything to help. So I Googled "how to help with the border crisis" and came to an article on Slate that led me to some sites where I can help a little with donating money.

Last year, after the initial news reports about family separations, we provided some suggestions for how people might be able to help. We’ve now updated our list of reputable organizations working to provide support to those affected. If you think this is a humanitarian crisis, you should also call your local, state, and/or national representatives.

• KIND—Kids in Need of Defense—has been leading advocacy efforts for kids in immigration detention.
• The Women’s Refugee Commission is leading national efforts against family separation and child detention to preserve access to asylum, increase use of alternatives to detention, and improve detention conditions.
• The Catholic Legal Immigration Network plays a crucial role coordinating legal services in response to administration-created crises.
• The ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project is litigating these and other policies at the border.
• RAICES is the largest immigration nonprofit in Texas offering free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children and families.
• Al Otro Lado serves indigent deportees, migrants, and refugees in Los Angeles and Tijuana, Mexico.
• The Florence Project provides legal and social services to detained immigrants in Arizona.
• Lawyers for Good Government suggests that you can contribute to the Project Corazon Travel Fund to send more lawyers (particularly Spanish-speaking immigration lawyers) to the detention centers and refugee camps. You can also pledge your frequent flier miles to help get more lawyers to the border and volunteer as a lawyer or translator. (I decided to donate to the Project Corazon.)
• Justice in Motion has created a network of human rights lawyers and nongovernmental organizations across Mexico and Central America to find parents deported without their children and help families reunite in their countries of origin.
• Immigrant Families Together supports bonds, living expenses, and medical and legal needs of migrant families.
• Innovation Law Lab builds tools for immigration-related crisis response, aiming to improve representation and due process.
• ActBlue has a one-click button to support many of these organizations at once.
• Lights for Liberty is doing local event coordination and is organizing nationwide protests and vigils being planned for July 12.
• United We Dream, the American Immigration Council, and the National Immigration Law Center are organizing to help immigrants in the event of raids.
• Human Rights First is a national organization with roots in Houston that needs help from lawyers.
• The National Immigrant Justice Center represents and advocates for detained adults and children facing removal, supports efforts at the border, and represents parents in the interior who have been separated from their families as a result of aggressive enforcement.

Reading the below information on the Save the Children website made me immediately donate to them.

Emergency Alert
Children’s rights continue to be violated at the border. Vulnerable and terrified, young boys and girls are being held in custody longer than the legal limit, being separated from their families, and more. Save the Children has been advocating to protect children’s rights at the border since June 2018. We are also continuing to address the root causes of migration through our work in Central America and beyond. We urgently need your help to reach every last child in need. A donation to our U.S. Programs Support fund will support all of our work in the U.S. and ensure that children at the border are being treated with care and kindness.

How is Save the Children Helping Children at the Border?
For 100 years, Save the Children has protected the world’s children from harm and ensured their rights are upheld.

Through donor support, we are the only national response agency working in transit shelters focused on the unique needs of children.

Our work at the border is focused on delivering immediate humanitarian aid to newly arrived children and families. In partnership with our political advocacy arm Save the Children Action Network, we continue to advocate for children, speaking out against violations of children’s rights at the border. And currently, we are supporting transit shelters that care for newly arrived children and families after being released by U.S. Customs & Border Patrol.

We are also continuing to address the root causes of migration through our work in Central America with longstanding programs primarily focused on children and adolescents in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

But we can’t do any of this important work without the support and the generosity of people like you.

4 Things You Need to Know About Children in Crisis at the Border
Save the Children is gravely concerned about the treatment and well-being of children who are in the custody of the United States government after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Children’s rights continue to be violated at the border – being held in custody longer than the legal limit, being separated from their families, and more. Here’s what you need to know about the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

1. Many of the families and unaccompanied children arriving at the border are fleeing from a complex mix of social and economic factors.
For years, a complex crisis of violence, brutal gangs and entrenched poverty has driven children and families to flee the Northern Triangle of Central America – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – and seek safety and protection in the United States. According to an April 2019 Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council report, family unit migration at the U.S.-Mexico Border has surged by 600% over the previous year.

2. Separating a child from his or her family unnecessarily is inhumane, traumatic and simply put, unacceptable.
The cruel act of separation can cause severe negative social and emotional consequences for the children and their families in the days, months and years ahead. Our global evidence shows that children living in institutions away from their families are highly vulnerable to emotional, physical and psychological abuse, which can lead to lasting developmental problems, injuries and trauma.

3. Save the Children is the only national response agency working in transit shelters focused on the unique needs of children. 
Currently, Save the Children is growing the capacity of local transit centers on the southern U.S. border that serve children and families after being released by U.S. Customs & Border Patrol. We are providing our renowned child-friendly spaces, where kids can be kids again, express themselves and begin to cope. Our child safeguarding experts are ensuring children are protected and providing technical training to local municipalities about how to safely serve children.

4. Every child has a right to safety, protection and a future.
Children should not have to experience the trauma that comes from daily threats, a terrifying journey, forcefully being removed from their parents, facing danger at the border or being held indefinitely by the U.S. government.

“Prolonging the detention of young children and ignoring their legal rights is not a constructive deterrent for combating the migrant crisis at our border, and is not a solution befitting our great nation,” said Mark Shriver, Senior Vice President of U.S. Programs & Advocacy. “Children are innocent victims at the border and our government has a responsibility to treat them humanely and with dignity.”

Please join me in the Low Budget Philanthropy movement and help out your community and beyond in the simplest way - donating any amount to whatever charity or organisation that you care about!