Mobile school for migrant children

Border Angels is organizing this fundraiser to benefit Border Angels.

Tax deductible

The Mobile School project was born from the collaboration between two humanitarian aid organizations Border Angels and The Schoolbox Project. As you may know, Border Angels sponsors ~15 shelters in Tijuana, MX serving migrant families who often spend many months waiting for asylum hearings and next steps. The shelters house hundreds of children, many of whom have spent months, if not years outside of the school system - if they were able to attend in their home countries at all.

In early July, 2019 Border Angels reached out to The School Box Project and they offered the use of their “Schoolie” - a school bus converted into a mobile classroom, designed to provide children in refugee camps and shelters a safe place to play, learn, be creative and just be kids, outside of the shelter walls. All volunteers who work on the Schoolie must apply and receive trauma informed training on how to best support and engage with children - taking into consideration the extreme trauma they have faced, and continue to face as their lives are still in limbo.

Currently, the Schoolie team is made up of 15 volunteers who visit 3 shelters (Movimiento 2000, Roca de Salvacion and Embajadores de Jesus) 2-3 times a week for 2 hours at a time. We serve over 160 children every week and are seeking your support not only to sustain the project, but to help us grow so we can reach more kids. Our plan is to expand our curriculum to include math, reading, writing and science. We also hope to grow our volunteer team and eventually we would like to purchase and convert a second bus so that we can implement the program in more shelters.

The reality is that this crisis is on-going - new families move into the shelters each week and we are committed to serving the children and providing a safe space for them to exercise their creative minds and find relief from their circumstances - until each child in the shelters has found a safe forever home.

Your support will help us fund the following for the next ~ 5 months:
Travel and food stipend for our volunteer staff ( $2000 / month),
Gas and maintenance for the bus ( ~ $500 / month),
Replenishment of supplies ( ~ $500 / month).

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your compassion and consideration.

About the orgs:
Border Angels is a non-profit volunteer-run organization that advocates for human rights, humanitarian immigration reform and social justice with an emphasis on issues related to border issues between Mexico and the United States.

Schoolbox works to provide trauma-informed programs to children displaced by refugee camps and crisis. On the surface, our work may look like school or it may look like play. However, if you dig deeper you will find a set of guiding principles that informs every choice we make by providing mobile, trauma informed education art and play to children displaced by conflict and crisis. School Project box provides mobile spaces, suitable for children, powered by solar energy and operating from any available infrastructure. We convert shipping containers,school buses, abandoned buildings, tents, bamboo structures or even sidewalks
into classrooms.