While politicians remain largely paralyzed when it comes to addressing immigration challenges, a spirited pair of West Linn octogenarians is making real inroads in finding humane solutions.
Sher and Gary Davidson founded the The Latin American Relief Fund (LARF, latinamericanrelieffund.org) in 2018. In the intervening years, they have relentlessly worked to help migrants in Celaya, Mexico by funding a shelter known as Albergue ABBA, or ABBA House.
Inaction is not in the couple’s DNA. Sher wrote her first novel, “Under the Salvadoran Sun,” a decade ago and was a jeweler in Ferndale, California and Gresham, after the couple moved to Oregon, where Gary began his teaching career. Today, Sher kayaks with friends in her spare time. Gary is a former shop teacher with many hobbies such as gemology, puppet making and bird carving.
The couple’s latest project is expanding ABBA House to help the many amputees it serves. These migrants have fallen or been pushed from the tops of trains they use to travel from the southern border of Mexico to the north. The trains are called “La Bestia” or “the Beast” in English.
Gary and Sher first started their humanitarian work nearly four decades ago in Nicaragua. They traveled to the Central American country in a brigade following the death of Ben Linder, a young Portland engineer who was killed in 1987 by Contra forces. Linder was working on a hydro-electric project to provide electricity to hundreds in rural Nicaragua.
“Gary and I felt very badly about Ben. We didn’t know him personally, but we knew the work he was doing. We decided we would be in solidarity with him and help the Nicaraguan people. Our two daughters were in college and they had to face the fact that their parents were going to a war-torn country, but they were proud of our outreach,” Sher said.
The couple worked on a generator project for a hospital operating room. Gary worked on installing the generator and Sher worked cleaning walls in the hospital and with the women in the brigade, mixing the concrete for the generator platform with their bare feet. “What was happening in Nicaragua was right before our eyes. It was a life-changing experience,” Sher said.
Later the couple traveled to El Salvador after the country’s civil war, where Sher taught art and Gary built easels for the Rays of Light art program for children and teens. They were volunteers for an organization called the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Latin America.
In 2017, while the couple was living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, they began to notice desperate refugees walking in the streets, searching for shelter. There were none. Sher was determined to find a way to help, and through the Red Cross in Celaya she learned about Alberque ABBA, run by a protestant pastor, Ignacio Ramírez and his family.
“The first visit was eye-opening,” Sher said.“The shelter housed about 30 migrants from Central American countries all fleeing gangs, poverty and corrupt governments, seeking a better life for their families. By Mexican law migrants are allowed to stay for three days in a shelter that provides warm showers, three meals daily and beds.”
Sher returned on a second visit with Gary and asked Pastor Ignacio how they could help.
“He modestly looked down and said, ‘Every month I knock on doors to pay the rent.’ He feared he would have to shut down because he could not continue to pay the rent on the dilapidated colonial house used for the shelter. What could I do but say ‘We’ll pay the rent?’”
“A bit dazed by my outburst, Gary took my arm and we walked out of the shelter thinking, ‘What have we just promised?’ We learned the rent was $550 each month. We headed back to Portland to raise the money,” she said.
With the aid of a law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, they were able to form the nonprofit LARF.
The first fundraising effort was a concert in Portland, where LARF raised the initial funds to help ABBA. Sher and Gary returned to San Miguel de Allende and formed an energetic board of directors.
Since that time LARF has helped pay the rent, started an education and music program for migrants, and funded a social worker. At the beginning of the pandemic LARF had its first capital fundraising campaign and raised enough to help Pastor Ignacio purchase the shelter.
Much has changed in the intervening years.
“Seven years ago, there were fewer amputees and people would throw food up to the migrants on the trains. Now there are more people coming and the need is even greater,” Gary said.
Since the caravans of refugees that came up through Mexico in 2018, ABBA now serves more families with small children and many women whose perilous journeys come with high incidents of rape. Immigrants come not just from Central America but from countries like Haiti, Colombia and Venezuela.
Pastor Ignacio’s dream is to build a second larger shelter for the many amputees who are now housed by ABBA. The shelter would house amputees, mostly applying for asylum in Mexico, who can learn a trade and live in peace with their families.
The City of Celaya has donated land for the new shelter, to be called the Cultural Center of Human Rights. Recently ABBA House was recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for its work and it has promised to help the project.
The Latin American Relief Fund is now reaching out, both in Mexico and in the U.S., to raise funds with screenings of the film “The Migrant Crisis: ‘Where Can We Live in Peace?’” by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Judy Jackson.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2024 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 40