Angy Tias and Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley. Photo: Sean Hawkey for CWS
Every year at the Benefit for Change, CWS presents the annual Champions for Change Award to honor the tremendous accomplishments of those fighting for the rights of vulnerable communities.
This year, Joyce Hamilton will be accepting the 2019 Champions for Change Award on behalf of the Angry Tias and Abuelas of Rio Grande Valley, a collective of women from South Texas who provide emergency assistance to asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border and advocate for human dignity and justice. Joyce herself is a grandmother, an environmental activist and a Presbyterian Church elder.
The Angry Tias serve as an example of grassroots advocacy at its finest, demonstrating how each one of us can find our own way to support the causes we care about. The group was started when friends from the Rio Grande Valley area saw large numbers of women and children sleeping for several days in the summer heat on the concrete of the Reynosa International Bridge. This group of friends decided that something needed to be done, and rushed to the bridges with food, water, diapers and other essentials. This was over a year ago, and the Angry Tias are still operating along the border. Their services now include transportation for asylum seekers and financial and labor support to local shelters, as well as the emergency support they provide to vulnerable communities along the border.
The Angry Tias and Abuelas show us all that, in the face of injustice, we can all play our part and there is no room to be polite about it. Don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate with us as we honor this group of incredible women, and grassroots groups such as them all along the Southern border. Read more about the Benefit for Change here, and purchase your tickets today.