You have traveled many hundreds of miles from your home over a couple of weeks. You have walked, ridden buses and on the tops of trains, hidden from evil people who wanted to rob you and hurt you and your family.
All you want is to be safe in a new country, up north, where you do not speak the language.
You hope you will be safer. You are a refugee and have approached a U.S. immigration checkpoint to ask for asylum. You can’t go back, to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, because that is a death sentence to you, your wife, rape of your children.
At the border, you are processed. Given a mound of paperwork you do not comprehend.
And then you find help, from people who speak your language and explain your rights. Food, shelter, clean water to drink and to bathe in.
And a new pair of pants, because you’ve worn the same pair of jeans for a month without washing them, and they are falling apart from the wear and tear of the journey.
Jeans for the Journey
I’ll let Father Jon Pedigo explain it. He’ll do a far better job than I could. This link is to his weekly email communication which my wife receives. Though we don’t regularly attend his weekly Mass, Fr. Jon is the one who married my wife and I, and he’s a leader in Catholic social justice in San Jose in his work with Catholic Charities. It’s OK for me to quote this from his email:
Families arrive to the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, TX with only the clothes on their backs. Clothes that they’ve worn day after day as they walked, waited, slept, been detained, survived. Some families travel close to a month before we meet them at the Respite Center. When they arrive, we greet them with cheers and clapping, smiles and warm welcomes. Some have said this is the first time in over a month they’ve felt welcomed. A part of that welcome process is receiving a new backpack, a warm meal, and a place to rest.
They are also gifted new clothes; clothes that fit and are chosen by them. Nothing tattered or full of holes but clean, well fitted clothing. They take a shower and come out clean. They throw their old clothes away and you can almost see a physical change in their persona. The newness in their journey and a step in this new chapter. We get to help them by physically walking alongside them. It may seem simple and unnecessary, but the sure fact they get a new pair of pants—one that fits them, one that has not been trudged along with them...but one that represents their new direction. It is a small thing that empowers them and restores a piece of dignity.
They are most in need of men's and boys jeans. Here are the sizes of jeans most commonly needed and quantity per week:
- Men's Jeans: 28"-32" waist (no longer than 32), 250-300 weekly
- Boys Jeans: ages 7-14 (22"-24" waist), 150 weekly
- Women's Jeans: 24"-29" waist (or 00-7/8), 300 weekly
- Girl's Jeans: 4-10, 150 weekly
- Toddlers pants 3-7T, 150 weekly
- Men’s shoes sizes 6-9.
Please send your clothing donations directly to the Humanitarian Respite Center, 1721 B Beaumont Ave., McAllen, TX 78501.
Online Donations
Or, if you would rather donate money online, that is also fine. Catholic Charities of San Jose can handle that. Their donation page is here. If you donate on that link, do be sure to use the pull-down that asks where the donation should go, and please specify Jeans for the Journey.
Here’s Fr. Jon’s homily on August 19 as posted to his Facebook page. The video link is here. Please listen to this for a first-hand report of what it’s like at the refugee center in McAllen. Fr. Jon was there a couple of weeks ago to help. (I’m not a Facebook guy, so am unfamiliar if there is a method to directly display a video, as we do with YouTube vids. If you can do that, please feel free to put the video in a comment below.)
So this is the deal.
I want us to overwhelm the Humanitarian Respite Center with donations. At home, we packed up a box of 4 pairs of jeans last week and mailed them to the McAllen address above.
I know that many of you have used but nice pants in your closet, pants that can use another pair of legs in them. I know that many of you have a few bucks you can use at whatever store you shop in, and go buy a couple of pairs of new jeans.
Fr. Jon’s email message notes:
UPDATE: Jeans for the Journey: Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated! Since our plea last Saturday, August 11, we received over $3500 and were able to buy 294 jeans. But our campaign is not over! Over 120 asylum seekers pass through the Respite Center daily and they need jeans!
How about it, everybody? Kossacks are giving and generous, so let’s again put our money where our mouths are. Even as we try, politically, to right the horrible injustice going on at the southern U.S. border, we can also do this small kindness to help people who genuinely need it!
(And another thing to do: Please use the Twitter and Facebook capabilities here to share this diary. The more eyes that see this, more money will be raised, and more pants will be bought.)