Hello, and greetings from Tijuana! We’re spending the next few days here working with three different collective and intentional community houses that focus on serving LGBT refugees. These communities house people from all over — Cuba, Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and from time to time, people from as far away as Ghana or Iran.
The newest house, Casa de Luz, has been quick to create a strong community. But it’s still working to get some of the basics taken care of and make the house feel more like a home.
To help get them started, we decided to buy them some additional items to fill out their kid’s corner!
They had already gotten started with some pads for the floor, a handful of books, and couple of toys, but we wanted to give a wider variety of options for the kiddos. So we got some more floor pads, more books, balls, bubbles, play-doh and some soft and cuddly animals.
The balls were an instant hit with the toddlers!
We also wanted to make sure that the adults didn’t feel left out of the fun, so we bought a few decks of playing cards and Uno.
A home isn’t a home without some joy, without laughter. These small additions will help to strengthen the Casa de Luz community, reminding the residents that even as they wait, life – and even fun – can go on.
Meet Steve! Steve is the Executive Director for ORAM, the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration, and member of the Alight family of organizations. Before joining ORAM, Steve served as the Senior Director of Global Initiatives at Out & Equal, the biggest LGBT workplace inclusion non-profit. Steve also launched a non-profit, Alturi, which increases engagement by American donors to organizations improving the lives of LGBT people globally.