Notes from Clay: 13 marzo 2024

When will the shelter open? That’s everyone’s big question. I can get to it only by way of updates from the long winding road we’re traveling. It’s been longer and bumper than anticipated, while conditions for the hundreds of thousand of migrants coming through Mexico continues to get more complicated and dangerous.

Many of you have been helping along the way.  None of the five members of the permanent committee has taken any money for their work, nor have any of the many volunteers, some of whom attend the standing the Tuesday morning meeting at 7:30 AM.

Hopes, estimates, reality

Last September, I predicted we would open in October. In March 2023 — a year ago, now — we hoped “in a few weeks,” working through Movilidad Humana, the international Catholic service arm to help migrants. It was higgledy-piggledy, accepting calls from migrants who needed help, housing and feeding people in spots around Morelia. Well, we learned that wasn’t going to last.

We also learned — slowly — that creating a permanent, professional, non-profit migrant shelter is perhaps 20% physical construction and 80% institution-building.

So while we can show pictures of wonderful progress in building the building, thanks to the dedicated work and contributions of so many, the complex, but far less photogenic, work of organization-building goes on.

Community Connections and Training

Migrant issues and services are international, regional, national, local. We need to connect with and learn from the vast networks and governmental components that have been working in this field for decades. We’ve met with and participated in trainings with:

• Mexico City central office of Movilidad Humana. These powerful migrant advocates run 36 shelters all over Mexico, and have decades of hands-on experience. Padre Javier is the head of MH for Michoacán
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with whom we now have a permanent relationship (they sent us the 25 bunk beds and mattresses). They help about 300 formal and informal shelters in Mexico.
• Junta de Asistencia Privada, which oversees charitable organizations in Michoacán, has met with us over 9, 2-hour sessions. They said they’ve seen many charitable organizations start up, then fail. They’ll help us follow the laws, remain transparent, and keep out of trouble. Our session with them last Monday, for example, focused on fund-raising efforts and the ability to receive tax-deductible donations from businesses such as Oxxo and Costco. Our next session will provide training on the money-laundering laws. 

Legal, Administrative, Finance

• We hired an accountant, with tons of experience in this area.
• We’ve  been preparing everything needed to get RFC / Constancia from the SAT, and presented the stream of documentation we pushed through the Junta notaries, and state registries.
• We’ll soon open a bank account to receive peso donations.
• We’ll be able to raise money through Go Fund Me, putting dollars into a US account, then use that account to buy items for the shelter.
• We still need final clearance from Protection Civil and sanitation officials, and a municipal license. 

Shelter work

• Two new, 22 kilo washing machines were donated by six expats
• The kitchen counters and tiling were finished out this week, using the money donated by Morelia United, plus 6,017 pesos contributed by ex-pats.
• The industrial stove-top and hood will be donated by UNICEF, as soon as the paperwork goes through
• We have two donated refrigerators (one by an ex-pat) and a donated stainless steel sink.

Tuesday meetings: recent notes

Decisions are being made on elements necessary for opening, most likely to be the dining area, intake interview area, and the security guard cubicle We’re presenting our projected receipts/expenditures budget for 2024 to the Junta. Expenditures will include salaries for director, administrator, cook, and security, and line items for food, utilities, office costs, transportation, clothing, and construction. Fund-raising will need to match this, and will be structured in the plan. Priorities, and the balance of operational vs. development expenditures, are issues being worked out. The work plan for 2024 is also going to the Junta now.

We’re working on organizing volunteer efforts. Of the expats involved, Connie, Dorian, and Claudia have been very helpful in this organizational task. Volunteer work will be organized around donations of consumables, physical help at the shelter (e.g., with children), maintenance and technical help, transport, fund-raising committee, packaging items to distribute to migrants, support services (eg: employment for those who stay in Mexico, legal, counseling, translation, medical). We’ll see as we start operating what is needed most, and when — always somewhat fluid.

Though we’ve met the main government agencies working with migrants, and all are eager for us to open, none are able to offer resources. One politician might secure help covering the salary of security guards. We continue to work on connections with the agencies.

Padre Javier met with the Mexican Consul in Houston. She has Mexican-American business contacts who may help. Pedro, Juan Carlos, and Padre Javier were invited to return to the consulate to present to potential donors; they are waiting for their visas.

We’ve started work on a web-site, with lots of work from Claudia, and input from many other players.

Final thoughts — for now

As we seek training and counseling from other charity organizations in Morelia, we get an earful of what the problems will be: extortion, coyotes and other human traffickers, various types of troublesome behaviors that can occur in the shelter, health concerns, what to do when it’s time for someone to move on, etc.

Apropos to the security questions, I am being disciplined to learn well that all of us developing the shelter must learn to be very careful with making our own identities too public.

We are getting a lot of training in Human Rights, especially on the rights of migrants, since we will be expected to be strong, unyielding advocates for migrants. For example, officers from Migration cannot come onto our property without a warrant. Nevertheless, we may run into circumstances in which officials from Derechos Humanos will complain to us about things we do. Such is life.

Back to the big question: When?

I hope if you’ve made it this far in the post, you’ll understand the answer, which is: as soon as we can, doing it right.

You are such a fine group of people, with so much to offer, it’s been hard to proceed without involving more of you. And very hard to put off donations!  That will change soon, but we can’t let the cart get ahead of the horse.

Please think about getting with the first four volunteer groups as a member or leader. The opening four are consumables, child care, fund-raising, and communications/web page (writers/editors welcome!)

Finally: I’m looking forward to posting updates on our webpage, as soon as we have it operating, instead of the e-mail list. We’ll let you know when we have it launched and subscribe-able.