October 26, 2023
This year, KIND is celebrating our fifteenth year of helping children migrating alone seek safety. Since our founding, we have built substantial and comprehensive knowledge of how to protect unaccompanied and separated children, and of the policies and practices that impede their well-being.
While we are proud to share our progress and successes, we cannot rest. Children all over the world are forced to flee their homes because global crises continue unabated. In 2022, the number of children migrating alone was ten times more than in 2012. Unaccompanied children will continue to migrate alone in search of safety and protection when their home countries are unsafe.
The magnitude of their need will not deter us. Quite the opposite.
Thanks to our steadfast community of supporters, advocates, and partners, we are there to respond to the challenges facing migrant children, be those challenges in their home country or in a destination country like the United States. While every day in the United States we see the life-changing effects that legal and psychosocial services have on the lives of our clients, those efforts are not enough. To ensure children alone receive the protection they need and deserve, our experience tells us that the current immigration system must change. We must create something better—a system that places the welfare of the
child first and reinvents the way the United States views child migration.
In 2023, KIND will launch an ambitious ten-year initiative to engage policymakers and the public to reform the child immigration process systemically so that it focuses on children’s safety and well-being. This campaign, “Keeping Kids Safe: A Seamless Safety Net of Protection,” will bring to bear all our resources and expertise in the name of promoting laws and policies that protect vulnerable children throughout their migration journey.
Your past support has made our work possible, while keeping thousands of migrating children safe. There is so much more to do; we will not rest. We are so grateful you stand with us.
Cover Photo: A fleeing Ukranian child at the Velke Slemence border crossing in Slovakia wears a blanket given by Slovakian rescue workers. March 2022. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images