To speak of migration or human mobility is to speak of one of the great challenges of humanity and, if to this we add the health problem of COVID -19, we are facing a truly titanic and uncertain situation, since this entails adding to the already difficult task of mobility, the challenge of public health checkpoints, the closure of some shelters and humanitarian aid stations, limited hospital clinics and a population frightened by excessive information about the Coronavirus.
To speak of migration or human mobility is to speak of one of the great challenges of humanity and, if to this we add the health problem of COVID -19, we are facing a truly titanic and uncertain situation, since this entails adding to the already difficult task of mobility, the challenge of public health checkpoints, the closure of some shelters and humanitarian aid stations, limited hospital clinics and a population frightened by excessive information about the Coronavirus.
The recommendations proposed by the civil government concern us directly since our assistance to migrant brothers and sisters is restricted and limited, who in the end of everything are the most affected, and reduces our actions to only cover the most basic and urgent needs, such as they are: to hydrate and feed them. For these tasks we have to comply with some protocols such as using masks, respecting a healthy distance and washing our hands, the use of alcohol gel, avoiding crowding of people, etc.
In compliance with these sanitary measures, we have decided to operate the cafeteria without the help of volunteers. Currently only the friars are serving food, and we avoid giving hot food and instead we prepare individual kits which contain tuna, cookies, chips, fruit juice, oral hydration solution, water, toilet paper and fruit if possible. For these efforts we use the dining room facilities, or we go to the railroad tracks to bring the food directly to the migrants, to deliver what is theirs and for them, in an attempt to mitigate their suffering a little. We draw closer to the suffering Christ in the person of the migrant brother and sister, and in this approach, we tries to give them back a little of the dignity they have as children of God.
On many occasions we have had to be disobedient to the civil government. We appeal to human charity, doubling our efforts by giving the migrants permission to use showers and toilets, even more, allowing them to spend the night in the dining room facilities, especially families traveling with small children, mom and dad. Witnessing the joy they feel after bathing, the joy that emanates from them after resting under a roof in a safe area is indescribable, something that makes us reflect on the great need to have a place to house these children. so dear to God.
The dining room for the migrant San Francisco has become an oasis for those brothers and sisters who are on their way looking for an opportunity for a better life, an oasis in which they find where to mitigate their hunger and where to quench their thirst, a place where even with setbacks and restrictions that occur because of the pandemic find a kind, generous and charitable response; without prejudice or contempt because we know that it is through them that we have the opportunity to serve the Son of God.
“Brothers and sisters, let’s begin with little or nothing done so far.”
Br. Agustin García Arangurè OFM
Coordinator of the San Francisco Dining Room
