U.S. Border Crisis Children's Relief Fund

Thanks to generous partners like you, Save the Children is responding to meet the immediate needs of migrant families who are legally released from U.S. custody following their apprehension at the U.S.-Mexico border. Our strategy focuses on supporting and building the capacity of partners in impoverished U.S. border communities where families are being released after being detained in prison-like conditions. These under-resourced partners are attempting to serve families’ urgent needs of food, hygiene, rest, medical care and mental health support prior to their onward travel to host families elsewhere in the country.

Our strategy also incorporates robust advocacy to ensure that children and families in U.S. detention and on the move are treated humanely and are afforded the protections guaranteed to them by both U.S. and international law.   

We launched our programs this spring, working closely with nonprofit- and faith-based groups operating transit shelters for newly released families in Deming and Las Cruces. The under-resourced groups were overwhelmed by the arrival of hundreds of families daily. 

Our activities to date: 

• We opened our signature child-friendly spaces and a community play area at the Deming and Las Cruces shelters. Child-friendly spaces are safe play areas that help children return to normalcy, interact with peers, play and begin to cope and are an integral part of Save the Children’s responses to U.S. and international emergencies.
• We opened mother-baby areas at the shelters.  These are furnished, quiet areas that allow mothers and their babies to nurse, nap, play and regain their strength. 
• We’ve cultivated strong relationships with partners in Deming and Las Cruces and have provided training to staff and volunteers to build their capacity to deliver and sustain child protection and emergency family services. 
• We are facilitating and leading coordination efforts for children’s services among federal, state and local agencies involved so that children’s needs are recognized and placed at the forefront of response plans.  

Thank you for standing with the most vulnerable children and families and making a difference in their lives!