Casa Del Migrante

Fr. Pat and I at the Casa in September, 2016.


Hello,

Want to join me in making a difference? I'm raising money to benefit the Fathers of St. Charles and their efforts at the Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, Mexico. Any donation will help make an impact. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause.

I have included a couple of links for your review:

https://casadelmigrantetijuana.com/en/

http://www.migrante.com.mx/tijuana.html    (In Spanish)


And below is a letter from Fr. Pat:

An Invitation to Share in our Mission

Charles Dickens in his classic novel a Tale of Two Cities uttered a phrase that continues to make sense today when he so eloquently wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. These very reflective word of Dickens sums up the very challenging times in which we live as both a society and as a Church.

            The mission of the Casa del Migrante since its foundation in Tijuana, Mexico in 1987 has experienced on an almost daily basis life as both the best of times and the worst of times. In our 32 years of living out the gospel mission of mercy the Casa has opened its doors to offer hospitality to over 260,000 people. Yes, you could say that a medium sized city has passed through the front doors of the Casa.

            Those who pass through the doors of the casa will be bombarded by the love and mercy of Jesus as we strive to offer our migrant brothers some very basic services such as: three meals a day, shelter and clothing, access to a lawyer, a psychologist, social workers, and a job counselor. Once a migrant, refugee or displaced person enters our house our goal is very simple to help him socially integrate into the Mexican society so that when he leaves the casa he does so as a better person. I humbly suggest that we are constantly striving to both change lives and at other times save lives.

            The most incredible aspect of our mission is that all our services are 100% free of charge to all those who enter the casa. Our annual budget is about $350,000 and we can both survive and thrive due to the generosity of many beautiful people who have accepted the call to share in our mission. We could not do it without the hundreds of people who donate to keep the Casa going day to day.

            We are now about to take the next step in what is the mission of the Casa del Migrante. In the last two years we have done some serious reflecting about our mission that led us to the conclusion that we must do more to help those we serve. It is simply not enough to give food, clothing, and shelter and send folks on their way and hope for the best. We have decided that we must be creative and offer them more tools to give them the hope at having a new life. We concluded that education was the real key to changing people’s lives.      

Therefore, the dream of CESFOM (Scalabrinian Center of Formation for Migrants) was born. We started our little school for migrants at the Casa in May 2018. In only seven short months we had over 2000 Adults students learning computer skills, English and Spanish, as well as short term courses on the History of Tijuana, Parenting Long distance and certification of primary and secondary education. The next phase of the dream will involve having space to be able to teach some very marketable skills such as: Carpentry, Plumbing, Electricity and Solar Panel Installation and Repair.

The second phase of our dream was to find an adequate physical space for our formation Center for Migrants and so this past summer we purchased a piece of property located about a five-minute walk from the Casa. At this location we plan to build CESFOM, which will be a three-story building with 8 – 10 classrooms providing a space where migrant lives can be changed forever. We hope that it can be a home where people replace the American dream of migrating to the north with the dream of staying in Tijuana and starting a new life.

This is our dream to help people, so they do not have to migrate in order to survive. Consequently, we are now inviting you to respond to the call to share in our mission. The moment is rather urgent as we need to find about $100,000 in the next three months to make the dream come true. Our most basic needs are the following:

1.      We need $50,000 for the Construction of the building

2.      We need $25,000 for the basics of the school (Computers, classroom furniture, Office Supplies and a Photocopier)

3.      We need $25,000 to pay staff for the first two years of the program.

Please consider sharing in our mission by being part of our dream to help those who have so little that they feel called to risk their lives to immigrate to another country. We are convinced that education can make a big difference in our lives of people as well as keep families together. I hope you feel called to help us keep this dream alive please.

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Pat Murphy