WHAT DO WE DO?

We aim to enhance the welfare of the community by managing a safe, warm, and human rights-oriented space.

Beneficiaries of the shelter receive the following services free of charge during their stay:

  • Balanced meals

    Breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week

  • Lodging

    We provide accommodation to children, adolescents and their caregivers.

  • Legal assistance

    Beneficiaries receive advice from United States lawyers, as well as Mexican lawyers.

  • Medical and psychological assistance

    As part of comprehensive care, physical and mental attention is crucial.

  • Educational services

    Children and adolescents receive multigrade education from 0 to 17 years old.

  • Training in trades or occupations

    During their stay in space, beneficiaries over 16 years of age learn workshops or trades.

Our projects

Oven:

Every Saturday morning, children, teenagers and adults gather around this space to bake bread and pizza, encouraging community activities with a common goal.

Sometimes people use the fire to cook food or make corn tortillas by hand.

Organic orchard:

We receive people from different places with different qualities and qualifications, among them are people who love planting and harvesting.

Embroiderers of Hope:

In coordination with Artisans Beyond Borders, a sewing workshop was set up within the shelter, which allows children, adolescents, and adults to express their experiences and emotions in a blanket, or work of embroidery. This allows them to have an income whenever they have a piece of work to sell.

Tortilla factory:

The objective of this space is to provide a nutritious and quality product to our community and to the communities around the shelter, as well as to provide a dignified and responsible workspace for our population.

Our vision for this space is to foster connection between the neighborhood and the community.

Ukelele Workshop:

One of our most recent projects is the Ukulele Workshop, which promotes practical technical training for people in vulnerable situations. Through community collaboration, we aim to offer opportunities that contribute to well-being within the community itself, fostering responsibility, commitment, and teamwork, as well as the habit of saving for their future.

Art is an essential part of the artisans' work, who imbue each ukulele with memories, stories, and experiences marked by often involuntary migration. Thus, art and music become a means for them to share their hopes for a prosperous and hopeful future for their children.

Escuelika:

Escuelika (Lika’s School) was created with the objective of providing educational attention to children and adolescents waiting to enter the United States within the same space of the shelter.

Since 2020, right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school has been a safe and inclusive space for the educational needs of each child and adolescent. At that time, it was the only school in Nogales, Sonora providing on-site education to about a thousand children and adolescents with the support of the Secretary of Education of the State of Sonora, the National Pedagogical University based in Nogales, FESAC and the College of Sonora with the program Mesabancos en espera (School desks on hold).

Today, Escuelika is part of CONAFE (National Council for the Promotion of Education, in Spanish) and has 4 teachers who provide education for kindergarten, preschool, elementary and high school students.

Shelter Statistics

2,706 people received shelter.

Inhabitants come 22 different countries. More than 20 different languages (including indigenous languages) are spoken.

70% of the people at the shelter are girls, boys, adolescents and women, people with a high level of vulnerability.

525,600 meals served to inhabitants.

1,287 girls, boys and adolescents have received official education.

2,321 people in our shelter have entered the United States safely and legally.