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The Shelter Jesus El Buen Pastor
A Place with different Faces
by Fabian Janssen

Migration is one of the big themes of our time. This holds true in Tapachula, a city in the south of Mexico, in the state Chiapas.

Every day many migrants pass through Tapachula on their way from Central America to the U.S.A. For many of the migrants, Tapachula is not only one of the cities or places they leave behind on their long trip. For many, Tapachula is their final station and the end of their dream about a better life in the north.

The border between Guatemala and Mexico is full of dangers. The migrants who try to cross at the border-river, which is near Tapachula, have to pay bribes to police and military so that they will let them cross. Even if they do pay, the danger still exists that these same officials will rob them. In these cases, many of the migrants get hurt, shot or even killed. For women, there is also the danger that they will get raped.

Those who pass these dangers with or without problems will hit new snags further along their path. Bandits and the “migra” (migration authorities) are the next hurdles on the way. The migrants get robbed and/or caught by the “migra” and end up in the detention center before getting deported.

Despite all the dangers and hurdles the migrants have to face on their trip, many of them are able to make it. Many of the migrants who get arrested and deported back to their home countries, immediately turn around and head up another time. The majority of the migrants move from Tapachula towards the town Arriaga and the state of Oaxaca. Once in Arriage, they try to jump on the train, which is called “The Beast”. This train runs northward to the border of the United States. The train seems to be an easier option for the migrants because they don’t have to walk all the way through Mexico. Often the ride with the train implicates the next challenge along the way.

Many of the migrants fall down from the roof or get stuck under the wheels when the train begins to speed up. The danger to get caught by the police, to get kidnapped or robbed exists here, just as it does on the other parts of the journey.

For the migrants who are wounded, the shelter “Jesus el Buen Pastor del Pobre y el Migrante” is a place of refuge. Along with receiving attention to their basic needs like food and water, the people in the shelter receive the necessary medical help. The founder and the other workers in the shelter make sure that migrants who need an operation are treated in the hospital of Tapachula. Afterwards, they come back to the shelter to have the chance to start their lives on a new path. They have the possibility to take English and computer classes, they learn how to bake in the shelter’s own bakery “Panaderia Buen Pastor”, or they just find a little bit of respite from all their troubles.

The shelter was founded by Mrs. Olga Sanchez 16 years ago and she is still the president and director. Since 2005, the shelter has been located near the neighborhood of Tapachula called “Raymundo Enriquez”, which is found outside the congested area of the city.
When you first arrive at the shelter, you are confronted with a huge wall with barred windows and big gates. In the first second, it looks more like a jail then a shelter. But then, little by little, you start to notice other things: the big tree over your head, the nice flowerbeds, the statue of Jesus Christ, “Jesus el Buen Pastor”, embedded in the wall.

These other impressions quickly do away with the image of a jail and give the shelter another face. If you look to your left, you will see the name of the shelter in big black letters. On the right, you find the shop where you can buy food, snacks, products make by the migrants, and the homemade “Pan Dulce” – Sweet Bread.
You enter the Shelter through a small door in the big entrance gate, then you are in the courtyard. Both inside and outside of the shelter, the walls are painted off-white with a green border. From the outside of the shelter, everything seems very quiet, but inside there is a lot of activity. Children are playing in the office, the migrants work in the bakery, and the elderly men sit in the shade, dozing, chatting, or dreaming, deep in their own thoughts.

The shelter is a place which many different faces. All people who end up here have a long journey full of difficulties and privations behind them. They are from different countries and each person has his or her own tragic story.
But there is one thing that connects all: the decision to take the first step northward and take on the status of “undocumented.”
Their decision to head up north, leaving behind friends, relatives, and their home, shows how their hope for the situation in their home countries to change has been destroyed step by step.

When the migrants in the journey end up wounded, mutilated or psychologically at the end of their rope, they can find refuge in the shelter, their unplanned, but often final, destination.

Many of them were planning on spending only one night in Tapachula and going on after. No one planned to stay longer. These migrants are the victims of the actions of the existing and emerging industrialized countries, which are constantly on the hunt for loan workers and cheap products. The migrants are victims of a “war” which is conducted by only a small part of the world but has unimaginable, wide-reaching impacts.
So the shelter often is a place of sad faces and eyes that have seen to much. It is sometimes also the place of dying people.
Donar, one of the Migrants who has lived the past 5 years in the shelter and has lost both legs, says that for him, he experiences a new agony every time he sees how injured brothers and sisters arrive.
But the shelter also is place of hope. Often you see laughing faces, the children are playing and the people are happily taking part in the computer and English classes. The residents try to make the best out of there lives, handle their terrible experiences and have a bit fun.
Even if their dream to find work and a home in the north has ended, many would still like to go home to be with their relatives and friends and to see their homeland.

The work that Mrs. Olga Sanchez and her staff carry out is often very hard. Many authorities place barriers in their way and there is never enough of the resource which is often considered to be the most important in the world: Money. At the moment, the shelter is stuck in a financial crisis. Indeed, the work with the shelter’s bakery has helped the staff get a little bit closer to self-reliance financially. But the truth of the matter is that they are still far away from sustainability. Paying the doctor, operations, prostheses and the food devours every cent. So the Shelter depends on the generosity of individuals and, when possible, foundation sponsors. Unfortunately, the funding from the last major sponsor the shelter obtained ended after two years. Until a new funding agency can be found, it will be hard times for the shelter and sleepless nights for its founder. Mrs. Olga Sanchez puts every cent of her own money into the shelter and has to fight with a lot of debt, which clearly becomes a grinding burden.

When night falls in the shelter, all activities stop and the residents join for dinner in the dining room. Some go to pray in the small chapel, others stay in their room to watch TV or talk together. Despite the terrible destinies that are facing them, they have hope and believe.

If you see it from the point of view from the Christian belief system, to which almost all of the shelter resident subscribe, the residents consider their destiny to be in the hands and words of their “shepherd” (Jesus Christ). They take faith in this belief and keep looking straight ahead. The question which remains open is: will their new hope, their dreams be squashed once again by the walls, discrimination and ignorance of society, or will they, this time, really be allowed to make their way towards a better future?

What makes people leave their homes, why Mrs. Olga Sanchez founded the shelter, details about the functions of the various departments of the shelter, what a volunteer tells about their experience in the shelter, and the life stories about the people which live there, all this and more in the next episodes of “THE SHELTER SERIES”.

Fotos: Fabian Janssen, Copyright 2009 Fabian Janssen, fabiansreports.info!
Information: All Fotos have been edited.
Translation: Fabian Janssen and Juliana Morris, Thanks for the help!