Pope Francis has donated $500,000 to Mexico-based projects to help migrant communities.
The funds will be distributed between 27 projects associated with 16 Mexican dioceses and congregations.
All of them have asked for help to continue providing food, lodging and other basic necessities to those fleeing their home countries through Mexico.
“In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometres on foot and with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
“Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better future in the United States. However, the US border remains closed to them,” says a press release from Peter’s Pence, the organisation handling the funds.
The money is targeted to help the 75,000 migrants who arrived in Mexico last year as part of six caravans.
“All these people were stranded, unable to enter the United States, without a home or livelihood. The Catholic Church hosts thousands of them in hotels within the dioceses or religious congregations, providing basic necessities from housing to clothing,” Peter’s Pence says.
Although a great deal of attention was focused on the caravans at the time, the Peter’s Pence statement notes that “media coverage of this emergency has been decreasing and, as a result, aid to migrants by the government and private individuals has also decreased”.
The statement from Peter’s Pence insists that “a regulated and transparent use of the resources, which must be accounted for, is required before the aid is assigned”. It notes that thirteen projects have already been approved, with another fourteen currently being evaluated.
“Thanks to these projects”, the statement concludes, “and thanks to Christian charity and solidarity, the Mexican Bishops hope to be able to continue helping our migrant brothers and sisters”.
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