As U.S. immigration policies are more strictly enforced, thousands of migrant children and youth from all over the world are currently awaiting asylum in Tijuana for days, weeks, or even months. During this time, for a number of reasons, most children are not enrolled in the local public schools, and the nonprofit shelters where they reside are unable to provide even basic educational interventions. As a result, it is inevitable that they will fall further behind in their educational and social
In order to address the negative impacts of this situation, the International Community Foundation (ICF) and our local partners seek to launch a pilot intervention to offer contextually appropriate educational activities for children at three locations in Tijuana, with the goal of expanding to others as needed. This intervention will involve literacy programs and toy library model, along with basic school supplies and teacher salaries to benefit the children in the shelters.
In partnership with Fondo Unido (United Way Mexico), and IBBY Mexico (International Board on Books for Young people), this initiative will provide a hybrid of Fondo Unido's Ludoteca ("Toy Library") and IBBY's community-library model in order to promote socio-emotional learning skills, literacy and love of reading in children and train parents to be active facilitators in any context, as well as provide physical spaces for migrants and local residents to engage with one another and build mutual u
This project will establish the creation of classrooms and library spaces, teachers, books and school supplies to migrant children in Tijuana.
