What's Happening

April 14, 2021, El Centro, California – Newspapers and TV news broadcasts are filled with stories about the situation at the Mexico-U.S. border and the record number of migrants coming to the United States. But Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD, saw the situation first-hand April 8 when she visited Catholic Charities workers in El Centro, California, less than 20 miles from Mexicali, Mexico.

As President of Catholic Charities USA, Sister Donna traveled to El Centro, California, to get a sense of how things are going at the California-Mexico border and to support the Catholic Charities workers who are struggling to meet the needs of record numbers of migrants coming into the United States.

“The situation of the migrants is quite fluid – literally thousands pouring into the United States every day,” Sister Donna said. “All the border agencies, as well as the Customs Border Protection workers, are stretched to try to meet the demand as best they can.”

When they arrive in the United States, migrants are placed into detention centers until they can be processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection, Sister Donna explained. Normally, people should be in detention for only 72 hours, she said, but often they are detained for up to eight days or more in some places.

“The people I saw on Thursday had been in detention for eight to 10 days, sleeping on concrete with no access to showers and no way to change their clothes,” Sister Donna said. When released, they were sent to a respite site established by Catholic Charities San Diego. 

Sister Donna visited one respite site established at a local hotel. Migrants who tested negative for COVID-19 were sent to one hotel while those who tested positive were sent to another to quarantine. “Catholic Charities has been able to negotiate the use of the hotels, and is receiving funding through the state and from the Emergency Food and Shelter Board,” Sister Donna said. 

Once migrants arrive at the site and Catholic Charities workers have a sense of how to locate family or friends in the United States, the migrants have the opportunity to choose clean clothes and to check into a hotel room for showers and a place to sleep, Sister Donna explained. A local restaurant supplies meals. 

“Just the experience of getting clean clothes and having a clean room with their families can be wonderful” after the time they spend traveling and then in the detention center, Sister Donna said. She noted that most of the migrants enter the United States at El Centro or to any Catholic Charities site along the border are traumatized – many fleeing situations of violence or poverty in their native countries. The focus is on helping the migrants get to their final destinations: family or friends in the United States.

The sites set up by Catholic Charities San Diego have room for several hundred families. The families stay for about two days to recover from their ordeal, Sister Donna said. Catholic Charities San Diego then provides them with bus or plane tickets to the cities of their family members or friends and transportation to the bus station or airport. 

In addition, she added, the migrants are connected with the Catholic Charities agencies in the areas where they are going. “It makes all the difference in the world when you can send them to another part of the country and then connect them with Catholic Charities in that area,” Sister Donna said. “Even though they have relatives, they need legal help and access to various services. It’s a big operation.”

Looking back to her experience at the border, Sister Donna said it was emotionally draining. “There’s no way you can look at that degree of human suffering and not be affected by it,” she said. “My hat is off to the people in Catholic Charities who are doing this all the time, every day.” She said she spent much of her time letting Catholic Charities workers know how much their hard work is appreciated. “Each one of them is a walking saint. They reach out in compassion and respect,” she said.

Catholic Charities workers are not alone in their efforts to help the migrants. Sister Donna said close to 200 Sisters from various congregations have volunteered their services, as have volunteers from other walks of life. “The religious congregations have been extraordinary in both their outpouring of financial support and making it possible for Sisters who are willing and vaccinated to assist the migrants.”

Sister Donna said concerned people can help by volunteering to serve at the border or with financial donations to Catholic Charities USA or their local offices. “It’s also helpful for people to pray for the migrants because they are all traumatized,” she said.

 

Feature photo: Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD, takes time to chat with William and his daughter, Julia, who came to the United States from Brazil. 

April 2, 2021, Detroit – In her work at Gianna House – which offers education and supportive programs to pregnant women and mothers of all ages – Sister Theresa Mayrand, OP, has seen many success stories. Recently, one of those stories was highlighted publicly when Ariel Jewell, a young mother working toward self-sufficiency, received the Live your Dream Award and a $3,000 college scholarship from Soroptimist International-Grosse Pointe during a virtual award ceremony. 

Soroptimist International offers educational programs on issues that affect women, such as human trafficking. In addition, the organization provides mentoring and a variety of programs to support girls and women as they strive to meet their educational and career goals. 

“Ariel came to us in 2019 on her last pregnancy and started taking classes,” Sister Theresa recalled. Now the mother of three, Ariel left an abusive relationship and found herself without a stable home. “She told me that she wanted to improve herself, so she signed up at Davenport College for a pre-nursing program,” Sister Theresa said. Now a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Ariel worked three jobs as a home health aide and saved $10,000 to buy an old house. 

Ariel’s efforts to be self-sufficient paid off as organizations such as Soroptimist gave her some needed support. Individuals and organizations donated funds to help Ariel fix up her house and she continues to work toward providing a stable home for her children.

Ariel is one example of the pregnant women and mothers of any age who seek support from Gianna House. “We’re super-interested in helping them to be good moms,” Sister Theresa said. “We offer them classes in parenting and personal growth, as well as life skills,” such as obtaining jobs. 

In her ministry at Gianna House, Sister Theresa focuses on the outreach program. “It gives me a venue to do what I wanted to do – focus on women’s growth,” she said. Gianna House offers four classes a week, Monday through Thursday. Women who take the classes earn “baby bucks” that allow them to purchase baby supplies.

During the pandemic, Sister Theresa said, Gianna has begun to offer online courses through a program called Brightcourse, which streams more than 100 classes focusing on areas such as pregnancy, infancy, toddlers, and life skills. “They can use that any day, any time, and pick classes that they want,” she explained. “We’re trying to figure out how we can integrate this with my program. It’s much simpler than Zoom.”

Starting in April, Sister Theresa hopes to offer courses that mothers who aren’t comfortable with online classes can take over their smart phones. “We send them a number that would link them to a lesson [involving] a half-hour video.”

Gianna House offers more than classes, though. It also offers the women a sense of community. Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the lock-down of Gianna House, Sister Theresa said, “the women used to love coming to Gianna House because it formed a support group for them. They were such a support group for each other.” 

Alissa, shown at a sewing class at Gianna House, discovered that she loves sewing and now works as a seamstress.

Sister Theresa said young mothers are always challenged, but this year has brought even greater problems. “Right now it’s harder with COVID because of the home schooling [the mothers] have to do.” She recalled a young woman who was pregnant, working on her own GED, and trying to home school her children. “These are the realities that they face,” she said.

But Sister Theresa also has many memories of women who overcame their challenges and obstacles and are now doing well in life. Alissa, a first-time mother, took sewing classes at Gianna House and, through those classes and her love for sewing, found a job as a seamstress. “I’m so excited that Gianna House showed me something I love to do, and a job came out of it based on my talking about the knowledge I knew from class.” 

Monique, who attended classes at Gianna House since she became pregnant with her daughter, Serenity, spoke of the strong influence that Gianna House had on her life. “The classes they offer here are the classes I need to be a better me and to be as good a mom as I can be,” she said. “I also meet some other mothers here I can relate to. … Here we don’t judge each other no matter what. We build one another up. I can honestly say I am happy that Gianna House came into my life when it did.”
 

Feature photo: Monique, holding baby Serenity, is grateful for Gianna House and for the other mothers she has met during her classes there.