I've been home from Nogales for a week and a half and I'm ready to go back. What draws me is the powerful intersection of life's broken places and overflowing human compassion. The best example might be HEPAC, Hogar de Esperanza y Paz, or House of Hope and Peace.
HEPAC is located in and serves one of the poorest neighborhoods in Nogales, Sonora. I visited it with a group of folks from Common Ground on the Border. As we toured the rustic property, we saw one life-giving program after another. As usual, there was a lot going on at once, and translations flying back and forth, so I apologize for any errors.
HEPAC is a shelter, one set aside for mothers and children who are applying for asylum. For reasons of privacy I didn't take any pictures inside the shelter; the kitchen where families make their meals, and the large room with about 40 thin mattresses lined up on the floor. Each bed was neatly made with a random collection of blankets. As we stood in the room hearing about what brings families to the shelter it took me several minutes to realize three young children were napping at our feet. Although our group was chatty the kids didn't even stir. Perhaps they are all solid sleepers, or have just gotten very good at sleeping when they can.
The women and children in this shelter are waiting for their numbers to be called so they can have their credible fear asylum interviews. As I mentioned in an earlier post, when people arrive at US / Mexico border crossings to apply for asylum, they have to wait their turn for an initial interview - and their turn is usually a couple of weeks away. And so people are assigned numbers, and wait in border cities until their numbers are called. If things are working well, they will hopefully be able to stay in a shelter while they wait. Otherwise they will sleep on the streets. And if they are extremely lucky, the shelter to which they will be assigned is HEPAC - one of the best shelters for asylum seekers.
Different shelters focus on different cohorts - HEPAC is one of the few providing space for women and their children. I heard there is at least one shelter that takes men with children, while most shelters are just for adults. There may be a shelter that takes families with heterosexual partners, but usually a dad goes to one shelter while mom and kids go to another.
But HEPAC isn't just a shelter. It is also a school. Not just for the kids waiting for asylum interviews, but for kids in the community as well. And adults, too. The school provides elementary and high school education, at a cheaper price than the public school. The adult leaders clearly love nurturing the learning of the young people. They challenge the kids to bring up their grades, and promise a reward if they do so. It's usually school supplies, although children are known to make requests - one asked for a bike, another asked to be able to live in the US.
But HEPAC isn't just a shelter and a school. It also has a lunch program with volunteers
serving over 100 meals five days a week. The meal program is called El Comidor ("The Dining Room," just like the program I wrote about in an earlier post of that name - apparently this is a common name for food programs, like "Food Pantry" in the US). The program's director told us, though a translator, El Comidor has been serving the vulnerable children in the community for over 40 years. She knows because she was fed here, herself, when she was eight years old. She and her family worked at the dump, sorting materials. Her daily meal came from El Comidor. Now she provides the same hospitality to others. In her view, "El Comidor is the heart of HEPAC; the asylum family program is the soul."
But HEPAC isn't just a shelter and a school and a lunch program. It is also an opportunity
maker. It is the home of the Women's Cooperative, giving women the opportunity to create and sell micro-economic projects like sewing and crocheting, with proceeds going to both the women and HEPAC.
And it's a public health resource. A health clinic regularly provides medical care for the neighborhood. But even more impactful is the blue bunker-looking structure. The people in the region did not have safe drinking water, and so donors helped HEPAC construct a water purification system. It now provides clean, safe drinking water to five neighborhoods around HEPAC.
But HEPAC isn't just a shelter, a school, a lunch program, etc. It is also a community garden. When NAFTA
began, green space that had been gardened was turned into factories. At the same time, school curricula became more tech-focused, losing instruction on practices like farming. So HEPAC teaches gardening to kids and families. And the gardens are not just for shelter residents; like the school and the lunch program, people in the neighborhood come and learn and grow food and use it to feed their families.
Because HEPAC isn't just a shelter, school, lunch program, opportunity maker, public health resource, and community
garden. It is a bridge-builder. The goal is to connect the kids of the refugee families and the kids of the neighborhood, the moms applying for asylum and the moms who live in Nogales. For days or weeks, across barriers of experience and language, they work and learn and eat side-by-side, creating a community.
For me, HEPAC isn't just a shelter, a school, a lunch program, an opportunity maker, a public health resource, a garden and a bridge-builder. It is a glimpse of God's kin-dom, what people can do with and for each other, in ways that affirm each other's full humanity and creative strength.
One more thing. HEPAC is also a site for mission trips. Maybe I can't go back right now, but I'm hoping maybe some folks will come with me in 2020.
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