You may have heard about the migrant caravans that headed from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border a few months ago. The media warned us that thousands of migrants were rushing across the border and making their way into the United States. This never happened and the story, while still in the news, has declined in terms of reporting. Unfortunately for these migrants, the reasons they left Honduras have not disappeared and many will remain for years improvised camps before they can find a home.
Currently in Tijuana, there are somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 migrants from these caravans living in various camps around the city, patiently and hopefully waiting for their asylum number to be called. Making the trip back to Honduras would likely lead to death in the current political climate. These men, women and children have been living for months without proper health care, food, clean water or shelter.
This winter, at the request of a dear friend and herbalist, Ann Drucker, WishGarden Herbs enthusiastically packed boxes of herbal remedies to be distributed at migrant camps at the Tijuana border. Ann and a group of herbal students and a bilingual librarian went to Mexico to offer an herbal medicine clinic in three different migrant camps. They offered limpias (plant brushes with prayers), herbal teas and tinctures. This healing clinic provided much-needed health care, comfort, and emotional healing to many people in need.
Herbal Table In The Camp
“We saw such brave people,” Ann recalls. “I will always remember a child who had trouble sleeping at night. Sleepy Nights and Emotional Ally gave her the first peaceful night’s sleep she could remember. We worked with a 21-year-old woman with stomach problems for over a year. and we used Digestive Rescue GI Normalizer and abdominal massage to help her. So many people had to leave unsafe situations and Serious Relaxer and Emotional Ally: A Big Herbal Hug helped alleviate this stress not being able to sleep and being sleepy at night helped a lot. We also saw many beautiful pregnant women and the WishGarden pregnancy line was a great tool. Many people were “on the run” for their lives WishGarden tincture: ‘Now I remember peace.’ Tears welled up in my eyes.
Ann and her team taught ten volunteers from the main migrant health clinic how to do this limpias. They were very excited to learn. ‘The migrants come and ask for it limpias and don’t understand why we don’t offer them in the health clinic. Now we can say, yes we do!” said one of the volunteers. They are also now using some of the remaining WishGarden herbal tinctures. Ann plans to return to the camps soon and we here at WishGarden are preparing to many more to donate.
Ann & Liz set up the herb table
If you would like to help, you can donate to the WishGarden Herbs” Migrant Herbal Help Kit and we will match your donation of herbal products for migrants at the border. Just email events@wishgardenherbs.com with the herbal remedies you would like to purchase or simply an amount of money to be donated to the migrants and we will double the order.
You can also donate directly to Movimiento Juventud 2000 camp, where 60 tents have been set up in a small warehouse and is housing 350 migrants. It is run by five hardworking, dedicated volunteers. Send any contributions to Moviemiento Juventud 2000 via Paypal to nicooodrucker@gmail.com. 100% of your money goes towards providing food and basic necessities for the migrants. Nico’s two sisters (Nico is Ann’s sixteen-year-old son) live in Tijuana and regularly shop for the shelter and bring donations directly there.
For more information about Ann Drucker, visit her website Earth-centered healing art
Writer Anna Harshman is a member of the WishGarden founding family and is the Field Support Manager for WishGarden.
For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, or to sell any product.
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