By Fr. Antonio Ponce OMI. JPIC office
Fr. Ponce is currently visiting and connecting with Oblates parishes in Laredo, Texas. In this blog, Fr. Ponce reflects about his week of
activities in Laredo. It has been a hot but an interesting week here in Laredo.
I am staying at Our Lady of Guadalupe, where I am meeting with people from some
of the groups and their leaders.
Meeting with Greens of Guadalupe and Rio Grande International Study
Center
Last week I had the opportunity to meet Berta
Torrez y Socorro Coronado, from "Greens of Guadalupe, who, inspired by Fr.
Derrell Rupiper, have been involved in environmental issues in the Laredo area.
On June 27, I was invited by Berta y Socorro to participate in the annual
meeting of Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), an organization whose
mission is "To preserve and protect the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo, its
watershed and environment…".
Tricia Cortez, executive director of RGISC,
made a presentation about the work done by the organization, the different groups
that have joined their efforts to address environmental issues in the area and
the challenges they face. For more info about RGISC visit website.
Meeting with people from The Laredo Humanitarian Relief Team
Also,
last week, I been visiting one of the centers where volunteers are helping
migrants, specially unaccompanied children, some of them as young as 6 months
old. In recent days the number of woman and children has increased so
dramatically that the federal government has call this a "humanitarian
Crisis".
The group called,
"The Laredo Humanitarian Relief Team", form by people from different
organizations such as, the Diocese of Laredo, Rotary Club, Catholic Social
services, etc., help migrants contact their family members in the US, provide a
place wither they can shower and rest and give migrants packages they can take
with them once they live Laredo. The
package contained things like, water, toothpaste, soap, snacks, etc., all this
donated by local people. For more information: http://www.voanews.com/content/influx-of-undocumented-kids-overwhelms-us-border-patrol/1941764.html
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