Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Special Gifts for Christmas

We've partnered with Peace Supplies to offer you a way to support the launch of Restoration Project, Florence.

To say thanks we'll send you a Peace Supplies button, t-shirt, and/or 2011 border calendar. 

If you order by Friday, Dec. 17, we'll send you the thank-you gift in time for Christmas. Great for re-gifting. You can also give in someone's name and we'll send them a card and the gift(s) to let them know that a donation was made in their honor to Restoration Project, Florence.

Just go here to make a $25 donation and receive a button, $50 gift and be gifted with a t-shirt and button, and if you give $100 we'll send you a calendar, t-shirt, and button.

Peace Supplies Restoration Project Gift Packs

Your support will allow us to create our training materials to prepare people to write, visit, and offer hospitality, continue the work we are already doing: going to Florence or Eloy about once a week, writing letters, and offering short-term hospitality when needed. In the new year we will also be traveling to the Phoenix area to host gatherings and workshops with others who are part of developing the network of solidarity there, and to Austin in March to the national Detention Watch Network gathering so we can meet and learn from others around the nation who are doing similar work.

We are grateful to be building this network of solidarity with you. May hope truly be born anew for all this Christmas.

Monday, December 13, 2010

The season of waiting

Immigration detention centers in Florence and Eloy, Arizona, are kept full. Thousands of women and men are locked behind bars while they wait for their court date. Some stay for months. Others years. All for the decision. Can they stay in the United States? Or will they be deported? Or maybe receive a limbo status, some where in between.

Many wait in isolation. Family and friends are far way. Over the last year and a half, the Restoration Project has begun to write, visit, and offer support to a small number of people who find themselves locked behind bars when they were only seeking life. Some had to leave their countries because of their sexual orientation. Others narrowly escaped death threats and mobs.

Person by person, little by little, something amazing is happening. As we learn from one another. Listen to one another. Write. Visit. Become friends. We share in the magic that comes through human connection. By honoring the dignity of every human being we are all being transformed and liberated.

In the coming year we want to do more. With your help,  we can build a stronger lifeline of hope and solidarity for our friends as they wait.

We hope you will join us.