Stories of Change

Top: Erasmo holds one of his daughters during a meeting with CJ staff. Middle: Yovanny and his mother pick up food packages. Bottom: Frank holds a food package.

Relief for Deportees, Returnees and Refugees in Mexico During the Pandemic

Erasmo Hurtado was living in the United States before the coronavirus pandemic. He was given a deportation order in March 2020, just as COVID-19 was starting to spread. He had four months to leave the country, or he would be put in a detention center. Erasmo and his wife packed up their six daughters and left for San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He has relatives in San Miguel de Allende who he hasn’t seen for 30 years.

When Erasmo’s family arrived this summer, however, his relatives were unable to help. They were facing their own challenges as the pandemic ravaged Mexico. Erasmo’s family didn’t know how they would find a place to live or food to put on the table.

Through our partner Caminamos Juntos, CWS helps families like Erasmo’s in San Miguel de Allende. Thanks to support from CWS, Erasmo’s family found a safe place to live. Each month they pick up a food package from CJ. This has given the family a bit of breathing room while they assimilate into Mexican culture and create an action plan for what comes next.

Yovanny and his mom are also among the 80 people that CWS is helping through CJ. Both were deported to Mexico about a year ago. Yovanny, 29, had been living in the United States since he was just 9 years old. He struggled with Spanish when he arrived in San Miguel de Allende, since he had been speaking English for so long. Regardless, he has worked hard over the last year to focus on his education.

Because of his English, Yovanny was able to find a job in a well-known restaurant. That restaurant closed when the pandemic hit San Miguel de Allende, though. Yovanny and his mother were worried about how to pay rent and buy food. Thanks to the emergency fund at CJ, they have been able to meet their basic needs while continuing to look for work.

Not everyone who walks through the doors at CJ has returned from the United States. Frank, for example, is a 22-year-old from El Salvador who sought asylum in Mexico two years ago. He lives in San Miguel de Allende under refugee status now.

Like Yovanny, Frank had a job before the pandemic. But as the economic toll set in, the business could no longer afford to pay his salary. They won’t be able to pay him again until business picks up again. CJ has been helping Frank meet his basic needs in the interim.

Our partners at CJ wrote, “Caminamos Juntos thanks CWS for its continuous support, through which we implement our programs that provide legal advice, facilitate training for linguistic and cultural adaptation, provide advice on finding and accessing sources of work and education for employment, support training in different crafts and abilities and facilitate the access to study certifications from abroad, offer psychological support for the adaptation process, as well as the emergency fund that supports deportees and returnees and their families.”

Stories of Change

Top: installation of a mobile solar panel in Morine. Bottom: The Brenjos' youngest son, Vladan. Photos courtesy Regional Development Service.

Portable solar panels mean electricity and easier living for families in Herzegovina

Morine is a hut settlement high in the mountains of the Herzegovina region in Bosnia-Herzegovina. For centuries, people in this area have been practicing a nomadic lifestyle and are well-known for cattle breeding and producing cheese.

The roughly 20 families in Morine are dedicated to preserving their tradition of cattle breeding far from industrialized farms. But in order to make this happen, they face a lot of sacrifice and hardship. A family would usually spend around nine months each year in the huts that don’t have electricity because the area is remote and quite far from the grid. People retreat to towns only in the winter, when the weather is too severe to stay in Morine.

The Brenjos are one of the families in Morine. The family consists of parents Miodrag and Radivojka and their three children: Dejan (17), Aneta (13) and Vladan (5). The Brenjos earn their living by breeding cows and sheep and producing a special type of cheese, which they sell in Sarajevo and western Herzegovina. As part of the CWS-supported Renewable Energy Technologies program, the Brenjo family received a mobile solar panel, which enables them to access electricity. Mobile solar panels are an innovative model of solar panels, since they are smaller and are partially portable. Most importantly, they can be uninstalled in the winter when the families leave their huts and cottages in the Morine settlement due to the harsh winter conditions.

Radivojka said that their everyday life became better once they received the mobile solar panel: “Now, I can plug in the fridge and preserve milk inside. We are even considering buying some smaller size specialized fridge for milk to ease the production.”

For Miodrag, the most important benefit is having electricity in the evening. “It’s so hard, especially when it gets dark so early. We were restricted from so many things. Now we can listen to the radio. We’ll try to get a TV next year, as well,” he explained. This would finally allow 5-year-old Vladan to watch cartoons like other children do. “The most important thing is that our life became less challenging. It is much easier to perform our job now. We can even plan to introduce some new things in our work, which was not possible before.”

“A big thank you to all of those who helped not only my family, but all families in this settlement,” he added.

Stories of Change

Mercy washes her hands at a water point at Ngengechwo Primary School.

Water Access & Bathrooms Allow Girls in Kenya to Focus on Their Futures

Water is a top priority in arid communities around the world. And the part of western Kenya where Mercy lives is no exception. Mercy’s community is largely made up of livestock farmers.

Unfortunately, it’s also a community where girls have a huge disadvantage. The chances of a girl finishing school are slim. Girls are expected to care for their families and younger siblings. And considering that schools are usually far away from where families live, just getting to and from school every day can be dangerous and prohibitive. Girls as young as 12 are married off to older men.

Mercy is a boarding student at Ngengechwo Primary School, which is part of a CWS education program. She recalls how she and the other girls would go to a community water point after school each day to bring back water for their evening and morning. It was a long walk to the one community borehole that served both people and livestock. “It was stressful to fetch water, since herdsmen put their livestock first before women or school children,” she says. “We had to wait until all the animals were watered before we could fetch our water and go back to school.” Sometimes the men would harass the girls, and forced marriages sometimes came out of these interactions.

Back at the school, bathrooms were also a problem. There was only one latrine for boys and one for girls. When you had to go, you often had to wait in a long line. Many students used nearby lands instead, which led to high levels of diarrhea and water-related diseases. It was unsanitary, unsafe and undignified.

CWS teamed up with the school management and parents to address these challenges. Soon there were more bathrooms. The school now has huge water tanks, and the water is tapped to several water points on the school grounds. Mercy, who is now 15, says she has seen a huge change in herself and her fellow students. She says that all the students now use the bathrooms. “Proper personal hygiene has improved amongst us,” she says. “Dignity can also be observed on our faces, since we have washrooms where we can change and dispose of used sanitary pads without anyone knowing.”

“Life has changed and become much more comfortable at our school,” Mercy says. “Many thanks to CWS for these wonderful projects in our school.”

Soon, Mercy will sit for Kenya’s Certificate for Primary Education. This is a huge step for girls from a community where many of their peers are forced to drop out due to early marriage or pregnancy. We’re proud to be able to help Mercy and her peers as they focus on what’s important: reaching their potential.

Stories of Change

Delphine stands in front of the new dormitory.

A Safe Dormitory for Girls at a Kenyan School

Delphine is determined to learn. She’s a 14-year-old student at Ngengechwo Primary School in rural western Kenya.

Because the school is far away from her house, Delphine is a boarding student. It allows her to focus on her studies and means that she doesn’t have to make a long, dangerous journey to and from school each day.

Delphine has been a boarding student since she was in Grade 5. At that time, though, there wasn’t a dormitory at the school. The girls who were boarding students would sleep on their classroom floors at night. But space was limited, so it was a logistical nightmare. They had to rearrange the classroom every morning and evening. They would take their bedding outside every morning and hang it over a fence. Each girl had a metal box to keep her personal items in, which were kept at the back of the classroom. But those boxes were hard to access during the day and were noisy and disruptive to get into. “The classrooms we used to sleep in were very congested and dusty. Having our personal items destroyed by others was the order of the day,” she remembers.

The school didn’t have enough bathrooms, and the girls would go to a nearby river to bathe. The worst part of the month was when a girl would get her period. “It was very difficult for us girls to open our boxes to pick out a sanitary towel for changing because the other students, especially the boys, would laugh at us when they noticed. Others would avoid you entirely because in our culture it is believed that when a girl is on her period, she should stay far away from others and should not touch anything commonly used by others,” she explains.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a good situation. In fact, it was so hard that Delphine gave up boarding at one point, opting to live at home and make the long journey each day.

But today is a different story. Ngengechwo Primary School is now part of a CWS education program. Among other upgrades, it now has a dormitory building for girls. There is water on site as well as sanitary bathrooms that Delphine and the other students can use.

In fact, Delphine is now one of 84 girls living in the new dormitory. “I give thanks to CWS because on year [after I stopped boarding at the school] you came to the aid of the girls studying at Ngengechwo. You came to put up a big girls’ dormitory with enough space and washrooms as well as the latrines at the school boarding section,” Delphine says. “The environment changed to a very friendly one, enhancing our privacy, safety, health and performance.”

In fact, Delphine noted that a rare phenomenon is happening at Ngengechwo. “Since its construction, the girls’ population enrolled at the school for boarding has been constantly increasing and, contrary to the normal, has surpassed the boys’ population by far. Were it not for this facility, many of us girls would not be here today. Thank you very much to CWS.”

Stories of Change

Linnet stands in front of a classroom at Chepkram Primary School.

Given the Chance, Girls in Kenya Become Trailblazers

When Linnet was young, her future was nearly guaranteed. And the outlook was bleak.

Linnet lives in a rural part of western Kenya. In her community, being a girl is a disadvantage. The chances of a girl finishing school are slim. Girls are expected to care for their families and younger siblings. And considering that schools are usually far away from where families live, just getting to and from school every day can be dangerous and prohibitive. Girls as young as 12 are married off to older men. Many are forced to go through female genital mutilation, known as FGM, a harmful traditional practice meant to mark a transition to adulthood. The chances of a girl dropping out of school are much higher than the chances that she graduates.

This was Linnet’s world when she started going to Chepkram Primary School as a child. She describes the school as “stagnated” at that time. Her community was set in its ways; most girls went through FGM and were married off young. When that was each girl’s future, why would she need to finish school?

Things changed when Linnet was 11 and her school joined a CWS program focused on education and improving schools. Through the program, the school made some big changes. Soon there was a new dormitory for girls on the school grounds so that the female students could live safely at the school. New water taps meant access to water on the school grounds, and new bathrooms guaranteed the dignity of students who needed to relieve themselves. Linnet and her classmates began to feel more secure.

Security came hand in hand with hope. The CWS program reached far beyond the school grounds to engage the community in conversations about girls’ educations. Why not let girls stay in school and finish their educations? What new careers and opportunities could that open up for them?

Linnet is 15 today. She’s in grade 8 and will soon be sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. “Your training on life skills greatly helped build my confidence,” she told a CWS team member recently. “It strengthened my understanding of the possibility of girls excelling in different spheres of life through education. I did not know it was possible for girls in our school to reach the level I’m in today.”

The school has been around for 16 years, but Linnet is in only the third round of girls to sit for the exams. “The reason why the school stagnated all those years was because of the lack of knowledge among us girls and our parents about how it could be possible for girls in this region to proceed to higher levels of education through our commitment to learning, as opposed to being subjected to retrogressive cultural practices like FGM and child marriage,” she says. “Now, for me, this has become a thing of the past. Both my parents and I understand the importance of education, and I’m determined to reach the greatest level of education excellence in the future.”

Stories of Change

Irancier. Photo courtesy GRADAID.

Food Shortages and Growing Worries among Haiti’s Older Adults

“When I heard about the coronavirus, I felt extremely worried,” Irancier Morancy says. “I am already not in good health. If this disease gets to me, it will kill me quickly. On top of that, there are no good hospitals in the area to care for us.”

Irancier’s situation is heartbreakingly common for older adults in Haiti. CWS and our partners* recently conducted hundreds of interviews with older adults in several parts of the country to determine what impact the pandemic is having on this population and what their highest priority needs are.

We found that while nearly everyone knows about the pandemic, many cannot afford to protect themselves. Hunger is on the rise; 92% of people reported having to cut back on the quality or amount of food they were eating. As Irancier pointed out, access to healthcare is a significant challenge. And all of this is taking a heavy toll on mental wellness, with 49% of people reportedly feeling worried most or all of the time.

“The report’s alarming findings highlight the fragility of many systems and institutions in Haiti. Weak public institutions and political instability have challenged Haitians for generations, and the pandemic has exacerbated a situation that was already dire,” said Martin Coria, CWS’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Irancier is one of the people who took the time to be surveyed. He’s a 67-year-old father of five who lives with his married daughter. “When I was healthy, I worked the land,” he says. “I was a farmer. But for the past nine years, I have been unable to work the land. Now I weave baskets for a living.”

The economic impacts of the pandemic have been swift and devastating. Border closures and restrictions on movement meant that supplies and products became scarcer. Families fell deeper into poverty.

“Honestly, this disease has affected me in every sense, because the baskets I make no longer sell,” Irancier shares. “Clients have no money. The country was blocked, and we couldn’t buy anything.”

Years of frustration and pain have left Irancier without faith or comfort in his healthcare options, either. “I suffer from prostate cancer and have used a catheter for seven years now,” he explains. “But I don’t have the money to change it often. I need medicines and when I don’t have them, I am in more pain. It makes me sad to see that I cannot get healthy. I am supposed to go to see a doctor every two weeks, but I cannot afford that, so I go every 4 or 5 months.”

The government has also not offered to support to struggling families like Irancier’s. “I have heard neither the government nor media speak about the lives of older people during COVID-19. Sometimes, I hear them talk about the disease on the radio, but I have not received any help or assistance from anyone. Even if there is food in the market, we don’t have money to buy it. It would be nice if they could help us so that we can buy food. If you don’t show charity, you are not a true leader,” he says.

Irancier’s message is a plea for empathy: “In Haiti the lives of older people are not easy at all. Since there are no government or local authorities in the country who think of older people, I would hope they know that those who are older people now used to be young. Even though they neglect the lives of older people in their programs, there will be a time that they will be older people as well, just like me.”

*This survey was conducted in partnership with GRADAID, TCPPAH, SCH and AGEHPMDNG with support from HelpAge International and Age International. Read our press release about the report for more information.

Stories of Change

CWS Emergency Response Specialist Susanne Gilmore (back row, left) with staff from Living Hope Wheelchair Association in Houston.

Relief in the Face of a “Tsunami of Need”

Imagine being an undocumented worker in Texas. One day, a nightmare happens: you’re injured at work, and you end up relying on a wheelchair. Your body was your tool. It’s what made you a good worker in that sector, and it’s how you provided for your family. In just a few seconds, your ability to use that tool changes dramatically.

Now, it seems like no one wants to hire you. Because you’re undocumented, you don’t quality for unemployment or other benefits. It feels like no one wants to help you. Bills are piling up, and you start facing tough decisions about whether to pay your rent or buy food.

This is a dark story. It’s one of isolation, loneliness and despair. But it can also be a story of hope–one of neighbors standing together in the face of adversity.

And it’s one that the team at Living Hope Wheelchair Association in Houston knows very well.

Living Hope works with undocumented people with disabilities and their families. Much of their work focuses on helping people access durable medical equipment, essential supplies and medical care. Their team distributes adult diapers and catheters, and they help members access paratransit or other transportation to get to dialysis or other appointments. In addition to these material needs, Living Hope advocates for fairer, more equitable policies in healthcare and transportation. They also reach out to help break the isolation that many of their members face. They do regular calls to check in about their needs, including emotional and spiritual ones. Since Living Hope leaders themselves have faced the isolation and abandonment from society, they know that this accompaniment is a crucial part of their work. They leave no one behind.

Most of Living Hope’s clients are undocumented. Without a safety net, these families are especially vulnerable when something unexpected happens.

We first got to know Living Hope after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017. As you can imagine, disasters are even tougher to navigate for people with disabilities. With Harvey’s widespread flooding, some of Living Hope’s members were physically stuck in their damaged homes. CWS provided funds to help them build wheelchair ramps.

From there, a partnership was born. Tomás Aguilar, the Disaster Recovery Coordinator at Living Hope, has worked closely with CWS for the last three years. “CWS has amazing work happening, and amazing support. I take advantage of that,” he says. “By the time COVID-19 hit, we knew how to shift gears and do more with less. The discussions, emails and materials that CWS shares really made an impact on our ability to provide the same level of service.”

Still, the team at Living Hope has paid a price. Leaders within the organization contracted COVID-19. The team has been working above and beyond their usual hours and job descriptions. “We are proud we are serving our community and we will be even prouder when we can do it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm us,” Tomás says. “There will come a day, thanks to our planning and improvement in capacity, where we will not only keep our mission going no matter what but we will do it without overworking ourselves!”

It was after one of the CWS-convened group discussions with partners that the CWS team reached out to Tomás this spring. We asked what new needs Tomás was seeing in his community and how we could help.

Sadly, Tomás had a lot to share. Because of their immigration status, Living Hope’s members weren’t eligible for stimulus payments or the expanded unemployment benefits. In this political culture, people are afraid. They aren’t sure how to get through losing family members to COVID-19, losing jobs and facing mounting bills. Even the informal economy has dried up. The pandemic shut down paratransit services for a while; when they started up again, people were scared to leave home. “If families were hurting before, it has gotten worse,” Tomás says. Families are rationing insulin, medicine and food. Tomás called it a “tsunami of need.”

CWS issued a $15,000 grant to help. It’s part of a fund that Living Hope is using to provide cash help to at least 200 families. Each family has their own list of needs, and they know what is most urgent for them. It may be rent or a utility bill that is overdue. It might be food for families on the brink of starvation. And in some heartbreaking cases, it’s funeral expenses for a loved one who has died of COVID-19. Living Hope talks to each family, and those with extraordinary needs may receive a little extra help. The team’s goal is to eventually be able to provide at least $500 to each family to help during these dark times.

Every single one of us has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. But for our neighbors who have no support to fall back on, it has been catastrophic. Our team is proud to support Living Hope as they provide relief and hope to hundreds of people who are facing some of their darkest days. Because when it really comes down to it, that’s what neighbors do.

Stories of Change

Naw Paw Lue Lu and her daughter.

A Focus on Early Nutrition For Refugees in Thailand

Naw Paw Lue Lu and her husband are raising two children in Umpiem Mai camp in Thailand, which is home to refugee families from Myanmar. Their son is 6 years old, and their daughter is 18 months old. Naw Paw Lue Lu hasn’t had access to information or parenting classes, so she mostly followed the example of her older relatives and neighbors. Unfortunately, that meant that her son didn’t have a nutritious diet. She didn’t know about exclusive breastfeeding, when to start supplementing her breastfeeding or how to diversify his diet. As a result, she only fed her son rice, oil and salt.

During her pregnancy with her daughter, Naw Paw Lue Lu learned more from the health and nutrition staff in the camp. She got the information she need to develop healthy habits during her pregnancy. She understood how to keep herself and her baby healthy. When her daughter was born, Naw Paw Lue Lu knew the benefits of breastfeeding her exclusively for the first six months, and how breastfeeding benefits both moms and babies. Then when her daughter was six months old, Naw Paw Lue Lu joined the “Healthy Babies, Bright Futures” program. It’s implemented by The Border Consortium with support from CWS.

In addition to continued nutrition education support, Naw Paw Lue Lu began to attend cooking demonstrations. She learned about BabyBRIGHT, which is a complementary baby food. She saw how to cook with it and understood its benefits.

Naw Paw Lue Lu recalls worrying about her daughter in her first few months, wondering if her little one was growing as much as other children the same age. But as she began to implement more and more of what she was learning in the infant and young child feeding program, her worries eased. She could see her daughter growing well. She could clearly see the difference between her two children as infants. This was due, in part, to adding BabyBRIGHT to their routine. It’s also, she admits, because she was able to spend more time with her new baby (she had been a teacher when her son was very young).

Naw Paw Lue Lu says that she better understands how to feed both her children a nutritious and diverse diet. She spends time creating new menus for her daughter that include BabyBRIGHT and vegetables from her garden. And she sees how having the nutrition program is helpful for her whole community, especially families with young children.

Stories of Change

Ramazabee and her daughter.

Nutrition Education for Refugees in Thailand

Thirteen people live in Ramazabee’s household in Umpiem Mai, a camp in Thailand for refugees from Myanmar. Among the 13 are her three children–two sons and her 8-month-old daughter.

Remazabee says that she used to not fully understand how to care for her young children properly. She watched what others around her were doing and tried to do the same, but she didn’t have experts to talk to. When she was pregnant with her daughter, however, she joined the “Healthy Babies, Bright Futures” offered through CWS partner The Border Consortium.

Through this program, Ramazabee joined nutrition education sessions led by health and nutrition specialists. When her daughter turned six months old, Ramazabee joined an infant and young child feeding program. She accessed extra nutrition information and education from other refugees who now serve as Food Security and Nutrition Specialists in the camp. From them, Ramazabee learned the importance of eating nutritious foods and how to feed her children well according to their age. She learned how to use BabyBRIGHT, a complementary baby food. Then she received a monthly portion as incentive to stay engaged. During group cooking demonstrations, Ramazabee better understood the important nutrients in it that can be found in other foods in the camp. So, with BabyBRIGHT and locally sourced nutritious food, her daughter and is healthy and growing well — as confirmed during monthly Growth Monitoring appointments.

During a visit with staff from The Border Consortium, Ramazabee’s brother joined the conversation and said he recognized that his niece is quite happy and seems healthier than her older brother had been as a young child. He especially noted that she is not often sick.

Ramazabee expressed her happiness with young child feeding program activities, which inspire her to take care of her daughter every day.

Stories of Change

CWS Hygiene Kits

That Feeling When Neighbors Come Together

“We are located in an area that is very young and wealthy, but the wealth can mask poverty. There are a lot of working poor families that come to get food. I have had people say to me that they can now pay the bills since they received food here,” says Pastor Sharon Schulze, co-founder of Parktown Food Hub in Durham, North Carolina.

Parktown is only five years old, but they have already expanded and pivoted a couple of times to meet the growing needs in their community. Ultimately, their mission is to be a spot where food and friendships can be shared. They distribute food, but they also foster community and conversation. For example, Parktown’s Story Circles are times for groups of five people (socially distanced and masked, of course!) to gently share about themselves; who they are, where they are from and what they believe. It’s a way of fostering empathy and understanding among people from all walks of life.

The food hub is currently located at Parktown United Methodist Church, which has a huge porch and circle drive. What used to be a shopping-style food pickup inside the church has transformed into a safe, outdoor operation during the pandemic. And it’s a really good thing that the food hub has been able to continue operations during the pandemic, since need is skyrocketing.

“We initially had 600-700 people coming a month before the pandemic, then it hit 2,000 a month so we added an extra distribution day and thankfully, had donations from the community coming in, too.” Pastor Sharon also shares. “We work with community partners like the Lutheran Services, congregations, Second Chance Ministries so any extra we share with them and we are able to reach individuals even more through them.”

Like many other hunger fighting operations, Parktown sees a consistent demand for hygiene supplies. So in the same spirit of community that Parktown fosters, volunteers at the Richmond CROP Hunger Walk assembled 100 CWS Hygiene Kits that went to Parktown. “We put the hygiene kits into boxes with the food so every family got them during our distribution day. The families always ask about hygiene items and that is something we don’t always have so it is really nice to have the hygiene kits! We don’t have a designated storage space so it is really helpful to pass out the premade kits,” Pastor Sharon says.

When we asked her what message she had for people who put together CWS Kits, Pastor Sharon said, “There is a yawning need here, and that little small act really goes to something bigger. One hygiene kit can make a huge difference for a family. Jesus touched each person’s life one by one, and we can do that, too. It really is overwhelming to think about the support. The little acts can mean so much, so thank you!”

To learn more about how you can help support organizations like Parktown Food Hub, please visit cwskits.org.