- October 1, 2021 Social Justice
This summer, four St. Louis organizations—The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the Peace and Justice Commission of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis and St. Francis Community Services—came together in faith to support the needs of migrants at La Frontera, a Catholic Charities shelter in Laredo, Texas. This grassroots, interfaith collaborative called Helping Hands sent teams of volunteers and donations to the shelter, at which resources are few and needs are great.
Helping Hands grew out of the Sisters of St. Joseph’s existing border ministry. Donations for the spring trips to Annunciation House in El Paso were overflowing due to a collaboration with Marie Kenyon, director of the Peace and Justice Commission, who connected with the other organizations. Sister Maureen Freeman heard that the shelter in Laredo was in need and, once seeing it for herself, S. Maureen said we have to do something more.
“As a mission diocese, Laredo doesn’t have a lot of resources,” says Marie. “We decided the best thing we could do right now in addition to sending supplies was to go down with volunteers to give the staff, who had been working non-stop, a much-needed break.”
The call for volunteers and donations went out and the St. Louis community responded. Helping Hands raised more that $50,000 in just three weeks’ time. The money not only funded the travel expenses for the four teams of volunteers, but enabled the group to purchase supplies as well.
“It just happened overnight,” Marie says. “It was a way for those who were seeing the situation on TV but couldn’t go down themselves to help.”
La Frontera receives migrants who are released from detention centers and provides them with temporary lodging, food, clothing and other basic necessities before they travel on to reunite with their families across the country to await their court hearings. The volunteers served at the center in a variety of capacities.
Volunteers helped with food preparation and service, cleaning and laundry, organizing and distribution clothing and more. “The people who were coming in had been in their same clothes for weeks. So even just something as simple as giving them a fresh set of clothes, new shoes, a toothbrush, a hairbrush and a ponytail holder … you could tell after they came out with their new clothes that they felt they might just be able to do this,” says Marie.
Medical professionals provided basic care in the clinic that often remains closed due to lack of on-site health care providers. “Things happen on the journey—sprained ankles, blisters—and everyone seems to have coughs coming out of the cold detentions centers,” says Marie.
Spanish-speaking volunteers assisted with intake. “When the intake workers looked at them in the eye and said, ‘How are you?” was not something they experienced in our system up to that point.,” says Marie. “Just having someone sit and talk to you like you are a child of God is transformational."
CSJ Associate Gerry Rauch, one of the Helping Hands volunteers, was touched by the humble spirit of the migrants who had so little but helped one another. “What was so very touching was that these migrants weren’t just trying to get their needs met, but they were trying to meet the needs of other people that were struggling in their same situation.”
Gerry calls the whole experience, “the Beatitudes in action” in both the spiritual and corporal sense. “The work of the shelter is the work of the Beatitudes. It covers the gamut.” she says. “It’s finding Christ in the other and yet not making these people the ‘other.’” It’s really treating them like our brothers and sisters. There’s just no question about what we are called to do.”
If you would like to support our border ministry and Helping Hands, please donate online using the form below or send your donation to:
Helping Hands
c/o Mission Advancement Office
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
6400 Minnesota Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63111