Viatorians learned this week that the number of meals served at the dining room run by the Kino Border Initiative — which is a project of the Catholic Church in Nogales — has grown dramatically, with approximately 400-500 meals being served per day.

Increasingly, migrant families are in need of meals as they seek asylum. Photo courtesy of NMD.

This is the same dining room where twice a year, Fr. Corey Brost, CSV, accompanies young adults on pilgrimages to the border, to see firsthand what migrants endure.

Increasingly, volunteers are seeing large groups of families are coming from Guatemala, and in mid-February, a group of 97 Honduran families arrived. Officials observe that more migrants are fleeing violence and are most often coming as family units seeking asylum.

“It’s shocking to see mothers with babies in their arms without strollers or anything else to help carry them,” says Nancy Myers, a volunteer with the organization, No More Deaths. “Many have traveled on the top of freight trains with small children in hand and endured unimaginable problems while passing through Mexico.”

No More Deaths (NMD) No More Deaths is a humanitarian organization based in southern Arizona. It is a

Photo courtesy of NMD.

coalition of community and faith groups, dedicated to stepping up efforts to stop the deaths of migrants in the desert and to achieving the enactment of a set of Faith-Based Principles for Immigration Reform.

NMD volunteers go in teams from Tucson to offer migrants the chance to make a free phone call to families in the U.S., Central America, Mexico or other far-reaching places. Many basic medical needs can be met by the medical team using donated supplies, and the phone service is paid by donations to No More Deaths.

NMD seeks more medically trained people who speak some Spanish and would like to get on a volunteer team. If interested, contact Myers, at: nancyfleckmyers@gmail.com.