On the Ground: Visiting KIND’s Office in Tapachula

Every year on December 18, the United Nations (UN) and organizations around the world honor International Migrants Day. This year on International Migrants Day, KIND celebrates the important contributions that migrants make in the U.S. and around the world and reflects on the challenges they face.

The story below highlights how KIND supports children migrating in search of safety in Mexico.

Earlier this month, Lisa Frydman, KIND’s Vice President of International Programs, visited KIND’s office in Tapachula, near the Guatemala-Mexico border, where large numbers of migrant children continue to arrive seeking safety. The children’s needs are significant; many have survived traumatic experiences, do not know their rights as child migrants, or are unsure where to find legal and social services assistance. As they navigate their next steps, they turn to KIND’s Tapachula staff for assistance, help that includes group therapeutic activities designed to build self-esteem, resilience, and emotional well-being; individual short-term counseling and therapeutic interventions; group Know Your Rights activities; and individual legal information and assistance to child migrants to help them navigate the many challenges they face. Frydman describes her experiences during her trip below.

With growing numbers of unaccompanied children coming to the Guatemala-Mexico border, the need for KIND’s work in Tapachula has never been greater. Some are seeking protection in Mexico while others are hoping to enter the United States to seek safety there.  

KIND is observing a continuous and dangerous cycle at this border: unaccompanied children come to Mexico to seek safety; they are sent back to their home country without an assessment of their best interests; the children return to Mexico; and once again they are sent back to their home country. KIND is working hard to break this life-threatening cycle that leaves children vulnerable to harm and abuse and ensure that they can access the protection they need and deserve. Key to this effort is the work our team conducts in the shelters near the border where migrant children are housed. One of the highlights of my trip was observing KIND’s work in one of these shelters.

The shelter I visited is made up of a series of small low-slung buildings that house migrants, with an outdoor common area in the middle where migrants gather in groups. The day I visited, a KIND lawyer and a KIND psychologist conducted a Know Your Rights activity with about 25 children under the age of 14, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. One nine-year-old girl brought her eight-month-old sister. The children’s energy was palpable; they were thrilled to have visitors, particularly from KIND as we had been to the shelter numerous times before and were familiar, friendly faces.

The KIND lawyer led a game show style Know Your Rights question game with the children. It was wonderful to see how happy the kids were to be together and how excited they were to participate. I was so impressed with the children and their answers. KIND’s staff member asked, “What can you do if you file for asylum in Mexico and Mexico denies your request?” “Get a lawyer,” one kid shouted. “Ask to speak to a judge,” said another. When the staff member asked, “Who can name some of the rights you have in Mexico?” kids’ answers included, “The right not to be discriminated against,” and “the right to asylum.” One girl who appeared to be about eight years old said, “The right to feel safe in my body.” The kids’ answers made me so proud of the Tapachula team and the progress they made helping children learn the answers to these difficult questions.

Following the game show, the Tapachula team rolled out the educational board game they created to help explain to migrant children all that they might experience during their time in Tapachula and what to do in different circumstances. The game consists of a mat that staff place on the ground, comprised of the different processes, services, events, and places the children are likely to encounter. And the game pieces are the children themselves! It is a human board game. They move from step to step and navigate the game as they would potentially approach real-life experiences in Tapachula.

The game walks kids through challenges they may face on a range of issues, including education, health, medical care, immigration status, family separation, and detention. For example, one step is, “You decide you’re going to file for asylum. You go to the asylum office and file your application.” When kids land on one of the steps they might be asked a question or have to make a choice about what action to take next. If they land on a step that says, “You go to the asylum office,” then they might be told, “The asylum office says you cannot file an application on your own, you have to go to the Child Protection Authority first. What do you do?” I was amazed by how engaged the children were in the game and how much fun they had while learning critically important information. It made these difficult and somewhat abstract issues relevant to the children and helped them learn in a way that just explaining the information could not have done. 

While in Tapachula, I also joined KIND colleagues for a meeting with the president of the Tapachula child welfare agency and regional and local child protection authorities. KIND works regularly with Mexican officials to share our expertise on unaccompanied children. KIND trained Mexican government officials on the U.S. immigration system and process for unaccompanied children and agreed to train staff hired to work with unaccompanied children at a new government-run shelter on best practices and trauma-informed approaches to working with migrant children. Training for shelter staff and child welfare workers is greatly needed.  

Shelter is a problematic issue in Tapachula. Unaccompanied children lack adequate long-term care arrangements and appropriate family-based care. They need more open-door shelters and family-like settings. Children also need to know important legal information, for example about the possibility of reunifying with family in the United States. 

While the challenges are significant and growing, I am so proud of the creative ways that KIND’s Mexico teams are helping children at every stage of their migration journey. KIND’s work with children seeking safety in Tapachula and Mexico is essential and will only grow more urgent. I am confident that our team will continue to meet these challenges and help provide vital protection to migrant children, as we also work with government officials to increase their own capacity to protect children and ensure their rights.