- Title: U.S. missionaries build child shelter in Mexico for orphans of drug war
- Date: 30th January 2017
- Summary: GUADALUPE, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO (RECENT - JANUARY 17, 2017) (REUTERS) MEXICAN FLAG WAVING GENERAL VIEW OF GROUNDS OF CHILD SHELTER BEING BUILT U.S. FLAG WAVING PEOPLE WORKING AT SITE GENERAL VIEW OF SITE MORE OF PEOPLE WORKING AT SITE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AT WORK SITE VARIOUS OF BUNK BEADS AT SITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. VOLUNTEER, JERRY CARLSON, SAYING: "I think we're just going to keep on going on and it didn't seem like that would stop us, you know, the drug wars, and I don't think this is going to make a change to us. We're still going to come down here and we're hopefully this year (going to) get this done." VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEERS AT WORK SITE FOR SHELTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. VOLUNTEER, GARY PRISHEY, SAYING: "The people here in these little towns they need money, they need something to buy their food and clothing so they go over there (United States) and they want to go a job and everybody cries, 'they're taking our jobs'." VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEERS WORKING AT SITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. VOLUNTEER, JUDY FENDEL, SAYING: "I think about the children of Mexico. Their dark skin and their brown eyes have drawn me here to help them because they need it and I wanted to help and my heart came here." GENERAL VIEW OF SHELTER BEING BUILT FOUNDER OF "CASA DE LAS GEMAS" SHELTER, STEVEN BREWER, SPEAKING TO REUTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) FOUNDER OF "CASA DE LAS GEMAS" SHELTER, STEVEN BREWER, SAYING: "It is wrong because it breeds ill will between our two countries. I mean, prior to the violence we were friends with one another. At least I felt the United States government was friends with the Mexican government and we worked hand in hand, back and forth doing different things, now with the wall going up it drives a huge wedge between our two countries. There is just a lot of resentment and a lot of hatred that wasn't there before." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WORKING AT SITE SKY ABOVE ORPHANAGE
- Embargoed: 13th February 2017 22:33
- Keywords: orphans abandoned children Mexico drug wars border organised crime Guadalupe USA
- Location: GUADALUPE, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO
- City: GUADALUPE, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001619X2KN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Amidst tensions surrounding Trump's border wall, a group of missionaries from the United States have travelled to the former drug-ravaged Mexican town of Guadalupe to build a shelter for the children left orphaned by the war on drugs.
The dusty plains of the Sierra de Guadalupe was once a prime site for cartels transferring drugs, weapons and trafficked humans as recently as 2010. Since then, the body count of Mexico's drugs war in the region has calmed but the brutal legacy of the violence still remains. Many children were left homeless and many others without parents.
Today, U.S. citizen Steven Brewer and his Mexican wife Patricia Holguin have brought together a group of missionaries from north of the border to build "La Casa de las Gemas", an 11-hectare shelter for at-risk children.
Many of the missionaries volunteering at the shelter live in Texas, just across from Guadalupe's border with the United States.
The shelter has been 16-years in the making and has survived the brutality of cartel violence. Volunteer, Jerry Carlson, told Reuters it will also survive Trump's border wall.
"I think we're just going to keep on going on and it didn't seem like that would stop us, you know, the drug wars, and I don't think this is going to make a change to us. We're still going to come down here and we're hopefully this year (going to) get this done," said Carlson.
The shelter, set to open at the beginning of 2018, will receive up to 250 orphaned or abandoned children and victims of crime, aged between the ages of four and 19 years.
Poverty in this area of northern Mexico is rife and the lure of the American dream just 15 minutes north has drawn many to cross the border.
But American volunteer Gary Prishey spoke out against critics back home who say migrants are stealing American jobs.
"The people here in these little towns they need money, they need something to buy their food and clothing so they go over there (United States) and they want to go a job and everybody cries, 'they're taking our jobs'," he said.
The volunteers at this shelter have come from all over the United States, including states that voted for Donald Trump such as Pennsylvania and Utah.
Volunteer Judy Fendel travelled from Minnesota to help children in need in Mexico.
"I think about the children of Mexico. Their dark skin and their brown eyes have drawn me here to help them because they need it and I wanted to help and my heart came here," she said.
The shelter will cost about $7 million dollars to complete. Much of the funds have been raised by Christian groups in the United States but organisers are short the $30,000 dollars needed to install electricity.
The founder of the shelter, Steven Brewer, lives in Texas but is originally from the Guadalupe area of the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
After years of living together and crossing the border, he laments the wedge being driven between Mexico and the United States regarding Trump's border wall.
"It is wrong because it breeds ill will between our two countries. I mean, prior to the violence we were friends with one another. At least I felt the United States government was friends with the Mexican government and we worked hand in hand, back and forth doing different things, now with the wall going up it drives a huge wedge between our two countries. There is just a lot of resentment and a lot of hatred that wasn't there before," he said.
According to reports, some 110,000 thousand people have died in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an army-led crackdown on cartels. Heightened security along the northern border with the United States has seen the murder rate fall but concerns over crime and the undocumented movement of people across the two neighbouring countries persist.
President Donald Trump has vowed his border wall traversing the length of the border will provide security and be paid for by Mexico, which the Latin American country has rebuffed.
Last week, President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled a proposed meeting with Trump amidst tensions over payment of the border wall. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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