Catholic Charities of the RGV

Catholic Charites of the Rio Grande Valley is the charitable branch of the Diocese of Brownsville, with the mission to provide assistance to the most poor and vulnerable in our community. During the 2014 immigration influx, Catholic Charities took the lead in organizing the Humanitarian Respite Center to provide assistance to the tens of thousands of refugees and immigrants coming through our border. Since it’s opening and with the help of volunteers the center has successfully restore the dignity of 100,000 immigrants seeking refuge in the United States.

There is an untamed crisis in the Mexican-American border spurred by the number of immigrant families coming into the country escaping violence and lack of opportunity, looking for a better life for their children.  Being the first generation American child of Mexican immigrants,  this is a cause that is dear to our hearts,  so my mother, my brother and I traveled to the border to McAllen Texas to volunteer at a shelter that helps these immigrants.  While working at the Humanitarian Respite Center run by Sister Norma Pimentel of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande, we were able to see how the immigrants’ most basic needs are not being met due to the very high number of families coming in through the shelter each day.  The Humanitarian Respite Center helps undocumented immigrants that have already been processed by Border Patrol, and are in the process of joining their families across the United States.  They arrive in the shelter with no possessions whatsoever, hungry,  sick, without a shower for more than a week,  and many of them with a large GPS ankle bracelet that hurts them constantly.  The shelter seeks to restore their dignity by providing them with clothing, food, medicine, showers, and help in getting bus and plane tickets so they can join their families as they wait for the meeting with a judge that will decide if and when they will be deported. 

During the 5 days we volunteered, we gave out donated clothing to them only to run out of what they needed the most. Distressed mothers and fathers accompanied by babies and young children often waited in line for hours, only to reach the front of the line and find that there were no shoes, no socks, no underwear, and no pants for them or their children.  All the family members desperately needed shoelaces since these are routinely taken by ICE as the families are processed so that they will not hurt themselves.  We worked for 9 or 10-hour shifts with no breaks and still it was impossible to give the families the basic clothing they needed.   

We also helped by serving them food, and the exhausted immigrants' families would stand in line for 2 hours to be served.  Some meals were donated by local groups and churches and at other times, there would be a simple and very watery chicken noodle soup that would run out before everyone had had a chance to eat.  We would try to serve the children the most chicken and veggies we could find in the container, and some adults were given mostly broth that would not help satisfy their hunger.    We gave them whatever had been donated: cut up fruit, sugary cereal and still sometimes this would not be enough.  With donations, we also helped made sandwiches and snack bags so that the families could take them on the long bus rides as they left the respite center to be reunited with their families across the country.  

My brother and I taught the immigrants the English phrases they would need.  We had adults and children of all ages eagerly learning these phrase, studying them and asking us about how to pronounce them correctly.  The children were really eager to learn, and their faces would light up when they asked us if the Statue of Liberty was really big and if the snow was in fact really cold… 

Whereas parents had an innate tension and urgency to help their children after everything they had gone through, the kids were still happy and excited, oblivious of all they had gone through traveling through Mexico and were eager to learn English and start a new life here.  I am sure this persistence will serve them well as they integrate into schools and try to make new friends in the US.  

As a Mexican, I feel an obligation to help my fellow Spanish-speaking Latin Americans, and as a U.S. citizen, I feel the need to promote justice in my country. Political and social activism on this issue is deeply important to me.  Although the motivation and dedication of volunteers are certainly present in the scorching hot McAllen, the necessary and adequate donations for food and clothing are simply insufficient.   

I ask from the bottom of my heart for financial donations through this Go Fund Me I have created to benefit the RGV Humanitarian Respite Center.  With these funds, the Respite Center can buy the necessary items they need to satisfy the families’ most basic needs.  You can also donate items through the Amazon wishlist link as it contains the items that the families need the most.

You can order items from the following Amazon wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/JJVAJFS3VIIQ/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist&fbclid=IwAR1OUkKPoEA9rZL7keT_PBfUaK0nYP9CdbBdWkKlnXqpDxVA5oH-8mUW1Ow 

Please join me so that we can be of assistance to those fleeing violence and lack of opportunities in their home countries, to actively pursue their own  American Dream.

Thank you so much for your support. 

Since its foundation in 2008, soup has played a vital role at the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center.

For five years now, the center has taken on the enormous task of feeding hundreds of legally migrating families every day.

Many of the migrants have walked for thousands of miles across deserts, starving and dehydrated at the hands of smugglers and traffickers. When processed through different levels of law enforcement at the border, stress levels among the migrants remain high, while tolerance of new types of foods is low.  Gentle food such as soup is an essential offering for those who have made this difficult journey.


Currently, the existing stove of the Humanitarian Respite Center is too small, and cannot be used to provide the amount of soup needed. Between 500 to 1,200 people utilize the resources of the Humanitarian Respite Center daily, which is beyond the capacity of this small stove. The local Red Cross has a larger kitchen, and delivers soup daily to the Humanitarian Respite Center. But this delivery arrangement is not sustainable long term.


As a food writer, I would like to initiate a fund-raiser so that the Humanitarian Respite Center can afford to buy a stove and exhaust system. The current stove is of no use and is completely inadequate.


While raising the funds, I plan to collect the stories of donors, public officials, immigrants, clergy, and citizens about their feelings on feeding people that need help. These interviews would be compiled into a book. 
 

The fund-raising efforts would start immediately, with the potential to install the stove before Christmas 2019. We estimate the financial need to be around $30,000. If we surpass our fundraising goals, all excess monies would be committed to providing food for migrating families at the Humanitarian Respite Center.


Raising funds for a stove to feed people provides the opportunity to de-politicize our current border crisis and focus on the people that a stove could help. While the stove can provide food for the physical bodies of those in need, the stove could also provide spiritual food for a community, a nation, and individuals in need of healing.


Food is the common ground for all humankind. Instead of talking about politics, we can talk about simple needs. What makes us all human is needing each other, the need for fellowship and the need for sustenance.


Please consider a donation, and help feed humans in their moment of need.

Thank you so much!!

Melissa Guerra

In McAllen, Texas - just across the US/Mexico border from the city of Reynosa - volunteers work tirelessly to feed, clothe, counsel and deliver critical humanitarian aid to asylum seekers from all over the world. 

On the US side of the border, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley offers a refugee respite program that provides shelter and services to asylum seeking families released from ICE or Border Patrol custody - free to pursue their asylum cases from within the United States. 


Your donations to this campaign will help buy critical supplies and fund services for these vulnerable populations. Join Salesforce volunteers in giving what you can to help bring some humanity to the crisis at our borders.

Learn more about Salesforce volunteers here: https://www.salesforce.org/volunteers/

In the spirit of holy pilgrimages, we at Seidlitz Education are joining to raise money for Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center, an organization working tirelessly to keep families together in the midst of political upheaval at our borders. We will be walking near the border and stopping at various churches along the way, with a final stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle. As a team of bilingual educators, we are passionate about the well-being and stability of children at the border, and in supporting families in crisis at the border.

Two ways you can support us:
1. Just donate! The CCRGV-HRC will benefit from ANY amount.

2. Walk with us!  We are looking for 40 like-minded people to join us. The proposed route is approximately 8 miles long, and will take up to 4 hours to complete. The participation fee to walk is $35, and includes a free t-shirt. 

Charity Walk: April 13, 2019

Link to Sign Up: https://seidlitz.typeform.com/to/BLX7HH 


On Tuesday, February 12, we learned that the McAllen city commission members voted to terminate the CCRGV’s permit for the current respite center, meaning the CCRGV has just 90 days to relocate to a new facility. The mayor of McAllen and other city officials have pledged  to help the organization find a new facility, but this news only heightens the urgency of our work.

Now more than ever, the CCRGV needs its own livable, dignified facility outside of McAllen’s residential areas, and we are humbled and honored to do what we can to support their initiative.

Thank you to all who have donated so far!


100% of the funds raised will benefit the Humanitarian Respite Center. 

For more information, please read below:

"Recognizing that immigrants continue to cross the Texas-Mexico border in large numbers, CCRGV understands firsthand the growing need for essential services that provide hope during emotionally daunting and physically exhausting times. Taking action to address this rising imperative, Catholic Charities has purchased land in the City of McAllen to build a new respite center that will better meet the needs of the families that CCRGV serves each day. Located only two blocks from McAllen’s main bus terminal, the new Humanitarian Respite Center at this site will be positioned to welcome and serve the most vulnerable as they continue to pursue a new life in the United States."

https://www.catholiccharitiesrgv.org/respitecenter/DonationDetails.aspx


If you're interested to know more about Sr. Norma Pimentel: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2018/06/20/sister-norma-border-battles-fiercest-fighter-gentle-dove-astute-serpent

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley is one of four sites receiving immigrant refugee families that are being reunified. To date we have received 240 families and are expecting to receive many more. Join us in helping bring loving care to the immigrant refugee children and parents who are being reunited by helping us raise $50,00 to assist with expenses.