No one likes waking up at 6 am on a Saturday morning, especially not college students. Yet a diverse group of students from several New York City universities break the mold every week, motivated by the people they are waking up to be with - detained immigrants and asylum seekers. For the past ten years the Sojourners Detention Visitation Program in Manhattan has provided two vans to transport tired, yet determined students alongside nurses, businessmen, teachers, artists, and many other everyday people who volunteer their time to let those in detention know they are not alone or forgotten.
Detention visitation programs across the country like Sojourners prepare volunteers for sustained friendship with some of the world’s most vulnerable people waiting for months, sometimes years, for an outcome on their asylum claims/immigration cases. Detainees include Tibetan mothers fleeing religious persecution, high school teenagers from Guatemala picked up on minor traffic violations, Somali women fleeing violence, and many others denied basic human rights inside over 250 jails and windowless detention facilities across the US. These inspiring volunteers bring hope and humanity to a dehumanizing scenario, provide connection to the outside world, and advocate for the dignity of their friends in detention.
As any volunteer visitor can tell you, it is what they receive from their friends in detention that makes waking up early on a weekend morning the most rewarding part of their week. Despite the glass barrier between them, students receive lessons on courage, character, and the resiliency of the human spirit. They laugh and cry, and pick up a new language along the way. And when their friends are occasionally released they are there to pick them up at the gates of the detention center, ready to assist with shelter, food and clothing. Their volunteerism continues during weekly immigration status check-ins, and with help finding employment and a nurturing community, just as they would with any close friend.
Colleagues and classmates often do not understand their commitment, or their personal transformation, and some receive ridicule for their outspokenness on the plight of their friends in detention. They write editorials in the local press, and participate in annual vigils outside of detention centers. A few have been arrested for their activism, even though they are not immigration professionals. These are our neighbors and friends; ordinary people who too often go unrecognized for their extraordinary acts of courage and care on behalf of immigrants and refugees.
Thankfully there is now an award that honors such remarkable people working as volunteers on issues such as: immigrant/refugee rights, immigrant/refugee integration, and immigration/refugee reform. Do you know of someone who has exposed themselves to considerable risk—whether physical, professional, economic or social—for this cause, and whose stories have moved you and others to action or awareness? If so, consider nominating them for the Freedom from Fear Award, an initiative of the Public Interest Projects. For more information, and to nominate someone you know today, visit: http://freedomfromfearaward.com/nominate. All nominations must be received by February 28, 2011!
David Fraccaro David Fraccaro works at the intersect of interfaith cooperation and immigration through the Interfaith Youth Core's Stranger to Neighbor Initiative, a program that links university students with their immigrant/refugee neighbors. David is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and coordinates the national Detention Visitation Network.
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No one likes waking up at 6 am on a Saturday morning, especially not college students. Yet a diverse group of students from several New York City universities break the mold every week, motivated by the people they are waking up to be with - detained immigrants and asylum seekers. For the past ten years the Sojourners Detention Visitation Program in Manhattan has provided two vans to transport tired, yet determined students alongside nurses, businessmen, teachers, artists, and many other everyday people who volunteer their time to let those in detention know they are not alone or forgotten.
ReplyDeleteDetention visitation programs across the country like Sojourners prepare volunteers for sustained friendship with some of the world’s most vulnerable people waiting for months, sometimes years, for an outcome on their asylum claims/immigration cases. Detainees include Tibetan mothers fleeing religious persecution, high school teenagers from Guatemala picked up on minor traffic violations, Somali women fleeing violence, and many others denied basic human rights inside over 250 jails and windowless detention facilities across the US. These inspiring volunteers bring hope and humanity to a dehumanizing scenario, provide connection to the outside world, and advocate for the dignity of their friends in detention.
As any volunteer visitor can tell you, it is what they receive from their friends in detention that makes waking up early on a weekend morning the most rewarding part of their week. Despite the glass barrier between them, students receive lessons on courage, character, and the resiliency of the human spirit. They laugh and cry, and pick up a new language along the way. And when their friends are occasionally released they are there to pick them up at the gates of the detention center, ready to assist with shelter, food and clothing. Their volunteerism continues during weekly immigration status check-ins, and with help finding employment and a nurturing community, just as they would with any close friend.
Colleagues and classmates often do not understand their commitment, or their personal transformation, and some receive ridicule for their outspokenness on the plight of their friends in detention. They write editorials in the local press, and participate in annual vigils outside of detention centers. A few have been arrested for their activism, even though they are not immigration professionals. These are our neighbors and friends; ordinary people who too often go unrecognized for their extraordinary acts of courage and care on behalf of immigrants and refugees.
Thankfully there is now an award that honors such remarkable people working as volunteers on issues such as: immigrant/refugee rights, immigrant/refugee integration, and immigration/refugee reform. Do you know of someone who has exposed themselves to considerable risk—whether physical, professional, economic or social—for this cause, and whose stories have moved you and others to action or awareness? If so, consider nominating them for the Freedom from Fear Award, an initiative of the Public Interest Projects. For more information, and to nominate someone you know today, visit: http://freedomfromfearaward.com/nominate. All nominations must be received by February 28, 2011!
David Fraccaro
David Fraccaro works at the intersect of interfaith cooperation and immigration through the Interfaith Youth Core's Stranger to Neighbor Initiative, a program that links university students with their immigrant/refugee neighbors. David is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and coordinates the national Detention Visitation Network.