Who among us has not been swept up in the media coverage which is occurring on our southern border?
Dollie Ambassador and founding member Deirdre Roney is someone who does not hesitate to “go to the front line” to explore and experience something that interests her.
Deirdre decided to travel to Texas and Arizona for a first hand look at what is happening in the border cities. For three weeks she will be visiting shelters, churches, and service organizations, where volunteers and local residents are “in the trenches” serving persons in need on a daily basis.
And of course, we sent her with as many Dollies and Teddy Bears as we possibly could. We knew many of those persons would be small children, in need of something soft and cozy to hold onto tightly during dark nights and uncertain days. Little did we realize the adults would also yearn for the comfort our Dollies and Teddy Bears offer.
Here is a firsthand account of Deirdre’s experience:
The Inn Project:
“For (3) days this week, I had the opportunity to volunteer in Tucson, AZ with an organization called The Inn Project (theinnumc.org).
The Inn Project was created by The Methodist Church in southern Arizona, in response to a direct request by Immigration and Customs (ICE) for help in getting children out of detention centers.
Once families have cleared background checks and customs at the border, they are taken to The Inn, where they find shelter, meals, hygiene and bedding, and warm clothes as they await contact with family, friends or willing sponsors in the US. Once this contact has been made, The Inn then co-ordinates transportation to local bus stations so families can continue on their journey. Local businesses, including Greyhound, partner with The Inn Project and other non-profits to facilitate travel.
What I observed is when ICE drops off weary families – up to fifty persons a day – at one of the churches which serve as an “Inn”, they are often without their own property with which they entered our country, and are in great need of care. Here at The Inn, a coordinated response to the influx of refugees is happening not from the government, but from neighbors and volunteers.
I brought approximately 60 dollies and teddy bears with me to The Inn. When the children saw them, all laid out in rows on a table, they cried out with delight. As they carefully chose their very own dollie or teddy “soul mate”, their faces were shining and bright. They clasped the dollie or teddy to their chests and then chattered away about the hair, outfit, blanket, explaining what they loved and why. The dollies and teddies stopped tears and sparked games and laughter. Children held them for hours without letting them go.
I wish I could have taken pictures of the children’s faces but for their safety we cannot photograph them.
Several men and women were interested; “Where do you make them?” and “Are there groups we can join to make such things, I’m an artist, too!” Several women and men found the dolls immensely comforting.
It was heart-wrenching to see not only children, but also adults, silently sitting and rocking, or laying on cots, embracing dollies or teddies, staring into space or with closed eyes.”
Good Neighbor Settlement House:
“All we need is a phone call from ICE to tell us they are on the way with “X” number of people. We’ve asked them to provide us a heads up countless times so we can meet them at the bus station or be ready for them here and they repeatedly refuse without explanation,”says Andrea Morris Rudnik of Team Brownsville and the Good Neighbor Settlement House (goodneighborsettlementhouseinc.org).
For the past three weeks, volunteers in the US-Mexican border town of Brownsville, Texas have been scrambling to meet the needs of persons coming over the border. Clearly, everyone is exhausted.
“I’ve worked 10 – 18 hour days every day for the last three weeks and I think it’s all just hit me right now,” says Marianela, Respite Director at Good Neighbor Settlement House. She sits wearily in a chair and leans back. “I’m not kidding. I think I’ve reached the end.”
I’d just walked in the door with two dollies and two teddies and was pitching to be able to give them to families with children seeking asylum who were waiting at the Settlement House for the buses that would take them to family and sponsors all over the USA. “Here Marianela, have a dollie,” I said. “We’ve found that they are very healing to adults suffering trauma or stress.” Marianela took the dollie, held it to her chest and began to rock slowly as if she were soothing a child in her arms. After a while, she smiled, “I do feel better.”She leaned forward, “These dolls really work. Who did you say you were with?”
Soon I found myself distributing dollies and teddies to other persons. There was a woman collapsed onto a table, head in her arms. She was not responding to anyone, including her child. As I laid the dollies and teddies out on the long table beside her, she lifted her head to watch as children, one by one, approached to choose their dollie or teddy “soul mate.
After all the children had received a doll, I explained that sometimes parents needed a dollie or teddy too, and welcomed parents to choose one if they liked.
All the parents spontaneously burst into applause and one of the first women to stand and choose a doll was this woman! She gleefully lifted her dollie, smiling and laughing. She held it in her arms and rocked it. Then she played with her son who had chosen a teddy. They unwrapped the dollie and teddy from their blankets, put on the blankets like capes and laughed together.
The families at the Good Neighbor Settlement House and The Inn are fresh from an experience which I cannot possibly imagine: fleeing their own countries in search of personal safety; making a treacherous trek north through gauntlets of human predators; following a cartel coyote through scorching deserts or living in vulnerability and squalor on a bridge until they are finally allowed to enter the US to claim asylum; then suffering through the US prison “hieleras” or freezers for days or weeks, possibly separated from their children.
When ICE releases them to shelters such as Good Neighbor Settlement House or The Inn, it will be the first time they have been treated with compassion in weeks or months. It must be such a huge relief to enter into clean and safe home, to receive care – one person to another person.
As they prepare to continue on their journey into the world unknown,
at least I know they will have the companionship of our dollies and teddy bears.
Never again will I think of our dollies and teddies as just fun little extras for children.
