Help Migrants Access Mental Health Services

Dear Wonderful Community,

During this season of gratitude, community and looking back on what we have done this past year, as we prepare for where we would like to go next, we want to take this opportunity to thank you, deeply, for believing in the value and power of this work to bring healing to communities in need. This year, we were able to reach thousands of people in farmworker communities accross California and along the US-Mexico border.

There are so many things to be grateful for. From you, our incredible community, to the fact that this year's fire season in the US West Coast was not as devastating as previous years, giving us the opportunity to build up infrastructure, strengthen networks and realtionships in communities, and gear up for next season. We have also continued with our vision and strategy for sustainable trauma releif by creating local capacity for trauma relief and mental health.

Since 2019, AWB acupuncturists have been offering acupuncture treatments for pain, stress and trauma at refugee/migrant shelters in Tijuana as part of the Refugee Health Alliance Saturday Shelter Outreach Program. We've trained a cohort of acupuncturists from Southern CA and Northern Mexico who work along-side doctors, nurses and psychologists, to deliver mobile clinic services to hundreds of people on Saturdays. In October of this year we offered over 300 treatments throughout two Saturdays at several shelters while our expanded team was in TJ to train and work with parteras (midwives) offering treatments to families visiting their center. Here are some pictures of clinics at RHA and Contra Viento y Marea, another local migrant support organization where AWB acupuncturists treated clients and staff.

As the border program has gained momentum, we have a great need to consolidate a program budget in order to continue growing and stregthening local capacity in 2022. We are hard at work reaching out to potential partners and getting the word out about the importance and need of this initiative. If you would like to learn about different ways you can continue to get involved, please contact Stephanie Alvarez at projects@acuwithoutborders.org. We cannot do this without the support of our community!

With Gratitude and in the Spirit of Service,

The AWB Team

Dear Friends,

As we navigate through this hot US summer and feel the abundance of the Earth element, we hope you’re healthy and well. One of the bittersweet outgrowths of the past year and a half has been greater awareness of how acute, systemic, and intergenerational trauma affect us individually and collectively. The acknowledgment of how pandemic-related trauma disproportionally affects people of color, first responders, health and essential workers is increasingly part of our national narrative, as is the expanding conversation about how generational and toxic systemic trauma informs the health and well-being of Black, Brown and Native peoples.

Since 2019, AWB has provided treatments to migrating people in Matamoros and Tijuana, Mexico. Thousands of refugees, escaping violence, poverty and torture in their countries of origin, live temporarily in these border cities, waiting for a chance to cross to the United States. Living conditions are grim and trauma is high. Once people cross to the US, living and work conditions usually continue to be extremely challenging. Many find low-paying, physically dangerous work in the agricultural fields of Texas and California, joining communities of farm workers that grow and harvest our food. Just as we provide treatments for refugees in Tijuana and Matamoros, we support farm workers in the agricultural regions of California and are working to expand to other agricultural areas along the US West Coast.

Since our 2021 Spring fundraiser on GlobalGiving, AWB has been carrying out mobile clinics in Sonoma County, CA with the Botanical Bus, as well as monthly clinics in Watsonville with the Center for Farm Worker Families, Livity Rising and the Integrative Healers Action Network (IHAN). In June we resumed our collaboration with the Refugee Health Alliance in Tijuana, providing hundreds of earseed treatments and bringing some much-needed equipment, medical supplies and herbs to our partners on the ground. AWB-trained practitioners from southern CA are offering treatments in refugee shelters twice a month, and we’ve resumed regular service/training trips to work with the Parteras midwives at the Justica en Salud clinic that offers integrative care for refugee women and children.

While our commitment to emergency disaster response continues, we are also strongly focusing on working to address systemic injustice and intergenerational trauma through ongoing clinics. Our objective is to create mental health resilience and contribute to the prevention of mental health issues in at-risk populations. In order to do this, we need to continue finding ways to support our clinics on a monthly basis. Your support has brought us a long way. We hope that we can continue to count on your generosity and commitment to this work - after all, it takes a village!

From the depths of our hearts, we thank you for your love, financial support and moral accompaniment. We would also like to ask you, if you can, to consider becoming a recurring donor so that we can continue to guarantee the financial health of our programs and be able to continue providing mental health care to our communities in need.
Finally, we leave you all with some great pictures from our work in Tijuana and California.

In the Spirit of Service,
The AWB Team