Border 102: Casa del Buen Pastor, Tapachula

Later in the afternoon we went to Casa del Buen Pastor, more commonly referred to as Casa de Doña Olga, a place for migrants who fought for a future that the trains took away.

The migrants who come to Doña Olga’s have lost limbs or suffered severe injury while attempting the northward journey by train. There are approximately twenty checkpoints on the highway between Tapachula and Mexico City, so the railways have become a popular—although more dangerous—means for Central American migrants to avoid contact with authorities that might extort or deport them. Because of the exhausts of basic human needs—dehydration, hunger and a lack of sleep—and the malvados along the way—gangs, thieves and police—migrants often fall off or are thrown off the trains. Many become amputees, and there are no official services available to take care of them.

Casa del Buen Pastor began almost twenty years ago when Doña Olga recognized the need to take care of the amputees. Beautiful and graying, she started Casa del Buen Pastor after she herself survived a life-threatening sickness. It has never been easy and to this day she still has to fight for the survival of the albergue. Although some non-government organizations have helped considerably, in Doña Olga ’s words, both the government and local church has closed its eyes to the amputees. The International Red Cross doesn’t provide them with anything either. If the albergue wants to buy blood, it’s more expensive to buy from The International Red Cross than it is from the hospital.

The albergue, however, takes care of more than just their guests’ medical needs. Most of the migrants are farmers and are used to using their bodies as tools, tools that the train has taken away from them. Volunteers teach them technical and language skills so that they can develop new tools to make a living in the future.

“Mi elemento de vivir!”, Doña Olga told us. “Mis hermanos, mis gentes, mis familias….los migrantes!” ("My essense of life! My brothers and sisters, my people, my families... the migrants!"