[Note: I have, as much as possible, linked not only to the articles themselves, but also to bios of the authors of the articles, so the reader might get some idea of who the author is and why he or she is writing the article.]
No Childhood Here: Why Central American Children are Fleeing Their Homes
A thorough and very recent report by Elizabeth Kennedy, a Fulbright Fellow who has been doing research in this area for a number of years.
Babies in the River: “Urgent Humanitarian Situation,” Part I, by Dawn McCarty, PhD, LMSW
Dawn McCarty, a social worker and professor in Houston, writes from her own experience at the Houston Catholic Worker House, Casa Juan Diego, and from her search in Mexico of the root cause of the mass migration of children and families from Central America. (Part II has not been posted as of this writing, but presumably it will be posted soon at the Houston Catholic Worker website.)
Mission to Central America: The Flight of Unaccompanied Children to the United States
The result of a USCCB-sponsored fact-finding mission in November 2013 to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to find out what the situation is there and what might be behind the greatly increased numbers of people from those countries seeking to get to the U.S.
Unaccompanied Children: Something Is Not Right in our Hemisphere, by Christopher Kerr (from Ignatian Solidarity Network)
The Facebook page of Misioneros Padre Tomas, a grassroots organization working with youth at risk of gang participation and helping them to get an education. Of course the children and families who are leaving would prefer to be able to live in their own countries! This is a great example of a program that is helping children to remain in place and better their lives.
A short BBC story from May, 2014, about violence against children in Honduras
A story in The Guardian about villagers leaving Honduras for the U.S. A q=uote from the article:
"If youths want to go out to play, they kill them … If they want to study, they face threats. It is overwhelming them," said Ana Zelaya, secretary of a rights group in El Salvador that helps relatives of dead and missing migrants.[How many of us in the U.S. would not take drastic action if our children were threatened with death for wanting to play outside or to study? And what if our goverment was turning a blind eye to the situation? Then what?]
Turning away children at the U.S. border who are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America is cruel, by Albor Ruiz An interesting comparison of the current situation and an incident that took place some years ago...
Three Myths about Central American Migration to the United States
More documentation on the situation from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
More mythbusting
More links to some of the problems behind the situation -- some of the reasons people are desperately leaving Central America and other countries around the world -- can be found in my previous post of June 14, 2014
