Team effort provides 2,000 masks for immigrants on the border

Immigrants up and down the U.S.-Mexico border will protect themselves with high-quality face masks, thanks to the CBF Advocacy Action Team for Immigrants and Refugees—including CBF Advocacy, CBF Global Missions and Fellowship Southwest.

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With COVID-19 cases expanding, refugee asylum seekers in camps and shelters across the region particularly are vulnerable to the global pandemic. Similarly, immigrants living in colonias on the U.S. side of the border also are at risk.

Their need for protective masks surfaced late last week in a texting string among members of the Borderland Pastors’ Peer Learning Group. Members of that group form the backbone of Fellowship Southwest’s ministry to international refugees at the border.

During a Friday afternoon round of texts, several pastors lamented their inability to provide masks to immigrants under their care. Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of CBF Texas and director of Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Ministry, volunteered to buy masks online. Elket Rodríguez, immigrant and refugee advocacy/missions specialist for CBF and FSW, volunteered to determine how many masks are needed.

Then Sue Smith, area coordinator of CBF Global Missions’ North American Internationals team, suggested a win-win-win-win scenario. 

Smith, a CBF missionary who, with her husband, Greg, operates LUCHA Ministries for immigrants in Fredericksburg, Va., recommended an alternative to purchasing disposable masks on the open market: Order them from The Off Ramp, a nonprofit ministry operated by Nell Green, another CBF missionary who, with her husband, Butch, serves internationals in the Houston area.

This plan offered four significant benefits, Sue Smith said:

  • The hand-made masks are higher quality—both washable and more durable—than masks available online.

  • They cost less than other masks.

  • They provide a fair wage for immigrants Nell Green trains and hires to work for The Off Ramp.

  • And they wind up covering the faces of people who need pandemic protection and often cannot distance themselves from others.

Several frenetic rounds of texts and phone calls later, Rodríguez determined the group needs 2,000 masks, Green ordered sturdy cotton cloth at the best price available, and Fellowship Southwest pledged to pay for production of the masks and shipping to the pastors.

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As the collections of masks are completed, they will be shipped to pastors serving all along the border—Juvenal González in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico; Carlos Navarro in Brownsville, Texas; Lorenzo Ortiz in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Rogelio Pérez in Brownsville, Texas; Israel Rodriguez in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico; Rosalio Sosa in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico; and Zapata in Harlingen, Texas. 

The cost of durable muslin cotton The Off Ramp uses in producing the face masks has escalated, even as it has become more difficult to obtain. If you have access to and would like to donate mask supplies, The Off Ramp will be happy to receive them. Needs include:

  • Elastic, 1/8 inch-wide, or elastic cord, used in jewelry making

  • 100 percent cotton fabric or new 100 percent cotton sheets

Ship materials to Nell Green, 9833 Sandra Ann Court, Houston, TX 77025.

Production of face masks for immigrants is one of numerous projects Fellowship Southwest undertakes to feed, shelter, protect and advocate for asylum seekers. To support FSW’s Immigrant Relief Ministry, click here.

Jay Pritchard