Our face masks have arrived and are being worn by displaced people all along the US-Mexico border, a tangible image of the love that so many—including us—have for them.
You see, we were asked to make and send face masks to the border when a group of pastors in the region began texting about the enormous need for masks to protect the immigrants they serve, as well as residents of the colonias, poor unincorporated villages along the border.
This group of pastors works in tent camps and refugee shelters, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Amidst this flurry of texts, our friend Sue Smith, whom we interviewed recently on our podcast, suggested that they reach out to The Off Ramp and see if a collaboration might be possible.
There's no plot twist here! Everything worked out and we sent 2,000 masks, made by refugees living in Houston and originally from Pakistan and Iraq, to these pastors in these places so they can distribute them to the people they serve:
Eluterio González in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Juvenal González in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Carlos Navarro in Brownsville, Texas
Lorenzo Ortiz in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Rogelio Pérez in Brownsville, Texas
Victor Ramirez in Edinburg, Texas
Israel Rodriguez in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico
Rosalio Sosa in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of CBF Texas and director of Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Ministry, in Harlingen, Texas.
