Our work on the border is all about collaboration and partnership! Students at the BSM at University of Houston put these food packets together for us. We delivered to Cynthia Aulds with our partner the Coalition to Combat Human Trafficking in Texas. She included information about human trafficking in each bag and delivered them to Laredo. Our friends at Pastor Lorenzo’s church will deliver to displaced peoples on the other side of the border.
Later, Cynthia wrote us to tell us how the food packets were making a difference!
She received a text from one of Pastor Lorenzo's helpers: "We took some snack bags to the children and families on the bridge of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. There are families from Uzbekistan, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Thank you and everyone for these snack bags. The children were so hungry. Thank you again. We truly appreciate these bags."
Displaced people are vulnerable to human traffickers. Each food packet has a list of questions that recipients can read and perhaps self identify as a victim. Later this month, we will be meeting with first responders in San Antonio to talk about tools that can help them identify victims. We also are working on a video that can be played on a loop in areas where displaced people may be, such as homeless shelters, care facilities and detention centers. And all of this is in partnership with others.
Butch and Nell Green, CBF field personnel in Houston, Texas