U.S.A. Mission Experience

El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
April 12–19, 2008

Arrive in El Paso, Texas
Attend Tres Ríos PWP Spring Gathering
               

• View both cities from the top of Franklin Mountain to observe the pollution and contrast of cities; worship at Divine Savior Presbyterian Church; presentation by Border Patrol officer

Monday, April 14, 2008

• Visit Project Vida, an organization that offers a range of services to people in El Paso who are poor; services include a transitional living center, a health center, low- and moderate-income housing, child care and loan assistance
• Visit La Mujer Obrera, an organization that works toward a sustainable future for immigrant women workers and their families in the El Paso area
• Visit Annunciation House, a program that offers hospitality, advocacy and education to refugees and undocumented immigrants
• Visit Las Américas Immigrant Advocacy Center, an organization offering pro bono legal service for persons seeking asylum and children detained by Immigration and Naturalization Service

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

• Visit Sin Fronteras, a non-profit organization that helps farmworkers empower themselves through community organizing and local service center
• Visit Center Against Family Violence, the only domestic violence center in the Texas counties of El Paso, Hudspeth and Culbertson
• Cross the Border to Ciudad Juárez
• City tour, including Rio Grande River and canal; cardboard shacks and mansions
• Visit Pasos de Fe, a mission project of Presbyterian Border Ministry that supports churches and mission points in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez
• Meet PW of Chihuahua

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

• Visit Casa Amiga, a non-profit association that offers psychological, legal and medical help for people who are suffering from violence
• Visit Casa Mi Esperanza, a program that helps men, women and children deal with depression, family violence, addiction and other emotional difficulties
• Meet with a group of workers from the maquiladoras (assembly plants with poor working conditions, offering low wages)

Thursday, April 17, 2008

• Visit the Tree of Life project, which provides shelter, medical attention, educational and vocational training and love to neglected, abused and abandoned children
• Visit Los Ojos de Dios, the only not-for-profit center in Juárez that serves children who are homeless and severely disabled; the property uses solar power, wind power and sustainable energy sources

Friday, April 18, 2008

• Return to El Paso
• Stop at border monument for Las Desaparecidas (women who have disappeared near Ciudad Juárez)
• Visit Southwest Key Unaccompanied Minor Program, a detention center serving youth who enter the United States illegally without parents or adult guardians and have been detained by immigration officials