WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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This Mother’s Day, area restaurants are donating 10 percent of their proceeds to help refugees.
Bloomington Cooperative Living and City of Bloomington’s Latino Programs are co-sponsoring the “Refugees Welcome Here” fundraiser, to help migrants at the southern border and in Bloomington.
The fundraiser is organized by area attorney Isabella Bravo, who recently spent her vacation days volunteering with Al Otro Lado’s immigration clinic, in Tijuana. She escorted unaccompanied minors to present themselves for asylum at the United States border, and consulted with other migrants about their prospective asylum claims.
As Bravo tells WFHB News Director Wes Martin, she’s raising funds for the agencies that contribute to unaccompanied migrants’ journey to safety in the US.
The donations will go to the Bloomington Refugee Solidarity Network, a local non-profit providing solidarity and financial assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers and other immigrants in Bloomington; the Trans Liberation Coalition, in Albuquerque, NM., which provides basic necessities and sponsorship to transgender asylum seekers in – and recently released from – long-term ICE detention; and Contra Viento y Marea, a community kitchen and dining hall in Tijuana, Mexico, founded and run by women from the migrant caravans from Central America.
Bravo encourages area residents to join in, by having brunch or dinner at a restaurant displaying a “Refugees Welcome Here” poster.
Restaurants will be donating ten percent of the proceeds from sales on Cinco de Mayo, May 5; on Mother’s Day May 12; and Friday, May 10, the day of celebration for Mother’s Day in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
