Citizenship Project appeal for destitute farm workers

Amost daily during these winter months destitute farm worker
families come to the Citizenship Project office begging for
help to survive. Most desperate are the women with children
whose families have been driven into deep crisis due to
injury or illness, abandonment by fathers, or because they
are victims of crime. All are indigenous families, often
with very limited Spanish (let alone English), and very far
away from their homes in southern Mexico

Because the harvest season is over there is no work. Because
those who work in our rich fields are almost all "without
papers", these families are ineligible for the social
services that would sustain legal residents. Where else can
they turn but to us?

This is especially hard for us now because of the recent
decline in support by charitable foundations and in state
funding for the work we do at the Citizenship Project. At
the same time we struggle to respond to these needs we have
been forced to cut our staff pay and close our doors one day
per week. Our staff and volunteers take up collections from
their pockets, drive these needy families to churches and
food pantries, make appeals for help on our Spanish-language
radio program, but too often we have nothing left to give.

So this is an appeal for cash donations, of any size, for our
emergency relief fund for indigenous immigrant families. We
call it our Triqui fund, though it is our practice to use it
for anyone in desperate need--Triqui, Mixteca, Zapoteca,
Chatino, etc. Please send contributions to the Triqui Fund,
c/o the Citizenship Project, 931 E. Market St., Salinas CA 93905.

Please pass this appeal on to those who should receive it and
please feel free to visit us--we love company!

And please join us in redoubling your support for immigration
policies that will allow those who come here to produce the
great wealth of our region to do so in a manner more
consistent with our community values.

paul.johnston (at) newcitizen.org
_www.newcitizen.org
(831) 424-2713 home office 423-4108