Loretto Goes to Washington: The Peace Engagement Project

NGO Spotlight: Loretto at the UN

In the summer of 2014, a group of 13 women convened in Washington, D.C. to get some
face time with congressional representatives and encourage them to take a human-
rights-based approach to key legislative funding and policy decisions.

The Peace Engagement Project, a brainchild of the Loretto Community, united
representatives from several Loretto committees, based on the premise that acting
together the delegation could more strongly address their many dovetailing concerns.

The contingent was comprised of 12 Loretto representatives from the communitys
Peace Committee, Loretto Volunteers, the Earth Network, the Latin American Caribbean
Committee, and Loretto at the UN, in addition to two visiting sisters from the Sagrada
Familia order in Guatemala.

The Best Laid Plans!

The group met with half a dozen senators and representatives, plus the staff of another
20 senators and House representative over five days. The plan was to make the case for
reduced military spending, an increased minimum wage, comprehensive immigration
reform, an energy policy and a fair trade policy that would reject the trans-Pacific
partnership. But lines had hardened in Congress and legislation was stalled.
Carolyn Jaramillo, Sally Dunne, Molly Butler, Mary Ann McGivern, Paulette Peterson, Mary Bundy, Maruca Cipriano,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Connie Newton, Eileen Harrington, and Mary Jean Friel. Note former
presidents George Bush and Teddy Roosevelt on the walls.

However, 40,000 children were at the U.S. Mexican border.
The numbers had been surging since spring, and President
Obama had just that week requested $3.7 billion in
appropriations to strengthen security, provide family
services, provide legal services in accord with trafficking
legislation and address the root causes of the childrens
flight from several countries in Central America. Luckily,
Guatemalan Sisters Maruca Cipriano and Yolanda
Maldonado were on hand and able to provide deep insight into their plight.

For Sally Dunne, Permanent Representative for Loretto at the UN and NGOCDPS
member, it was a way to connect her global advocacy experience to national and local
concerns.

Political Prep 101





Dunne arranged for NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, and the
Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) representatives in D.C. to provide
some guidance to Peace Engagement Project members before their scheduled
meetingsespecially how to best use their time with their congressional representatives.

We were encouraged to try to make a heart connection with the people we talked to,
Sally said. Making that emotional connectiontelling stories rather than quoting
statisticswas something that resonated with me, because at the UN, its always the
personal stories you remember when other details fade.

They said we should always have an ask going in, said Paulette Peterson of the
Loretto Peace Committee, about advice from Network and LCWR. They told us we
should expect no more that 10 to 15 minutes with the legislator and/or their staff, and to
have a clear, concise message related to upcoming legislation ready. It was awkward at
first, but we got better.

Leaining the iopes: Eileen Baiiington, staffei, Alice Kitchen, Naiy }ean Fiiel, Sally Bunne, Naiy
Bunuy, Loietto volunteei Nolly Butlei, Caiolyn }aiamillo.

Local = Global

Loretto, a Catholic order originally founded in 1812, has a storied history of women
advocating for justicethrough education, environmental stewardship, empowering
women and girls, and more than 20 years of global human rights advocacy through the
United Nations-accredited Loretto NGO. Loretto values and promotes the insight of
people on the ground, and supports human rights from the grassroots to the global level.

Dunne, the NGO representative for the Loretto
Community, has been immersed in the politics of global
policy for the past five years. From her little office at the
Church Center, across the street from United Nations
headquarters in NYC, she has observed how local and
national concerns inevitably have a global angle.

The immigration crisis exploded at the border, with all
the unaccompanied children arriving from Central
American countriesthat was happening the same week
were in D.C., said Dunne. And by some act of divine
providence, some might say, we just happened to have
two sisters with us who were visiting from Guatemala, a
country from which many of these refugees were fleeing.
You could say it took over our agenda, but ALL issues
are related in some way to each other and to the crisis on border.

Two Loretto members served as translators for the Guatemalan sisters, who took the
opportunity to speak with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, U.S. Representative
Beto ORourke of Texas, and many others about the imperative to protect children and
families at the border and support comprehensive immigration reform. Since the Loretto
Motherhouse has occupied acreage in rural Kentucky for over 200 years, McConnell
was a must-see politician on the list.

I always track the way local, national
and global points of view inform each
other, said Dunne. This refugee crisis
has all elements at play. Families flee
their villages to escape from poverty and
violence. They take a harrowing journey,
endangered by weapons and trafficking.
They make it to the U.S. border town,
are detained as they wait for due
process, and spur a global outcry for
immigration reform.

Advocating for Refugee Children and Families

Over and over during the week of lobbying, Sisters Maruca and Yolanda told the
legislators stories about the children arriving at the U.S. border, seeking asylum from
violence and poverty in their home countries.
0.S. Repiesentative Beto 0'Rouike (B-TX) with Sisteis
Yolanua Naluonauo, Naiuca Cipiiano, Naiy Petei Biuce
anu Naiy Ann Ncuivein.

They spoke of a boy who left his village to
earn money for his mothers insulin. He died
in the desert. A girl became a gang member
to earn money for her family. She brought
her younger sister into the gang and when
members tried to rape the little girl, the pair
fled for the border and made it to Nogales.
A father was threatened by corrupt police
and sent his child to what he saw as the
safety of the U.S. Maruca and Yolanda
didnt know if he ever arrived.

One staffer asked, What happens in a
village when children decide to emigrate? Do they just all hop on a train together?

No, said Sister Maruca. When a family decides the child must leave, they go to the
coyote, the village neighbor who transports people across the border for a fee. They
make an arrangement with him and they entrust their child to him.

Asked about trusting coyotes with children, the sisters repeated that the coyotes
represented the risk of suffering and death but also the possibility of a future for the
child. The families who send their children north see no future for them at home.

One of the representatives said, Surely we have this surge of children because the
coyotes understand the U.S. legislation that provides them with legal support and
protection if returning home would endanger their lives.

Neither Yolanda nor Maruca was familiar with
the law and they doubted the coyotes were
either. Instead they explained how in recent
years the coup in Honduras had triggered crime
and corruptionalong with increased
militarization in Guatemala after the election of
a former military dictatorall of which
endangered the lives of children.

They and the Loretto delegation urged that the
small portion of the requested funds meant to
look at root causes must not be spent on further
arms imports to Central America. Instead the U.S. must look at the roots of societal
violence, including the War on Drugs, and develop strategies of demilitarization and
community security.

Congress has not acted to grant President Obamas emergency request, but neither has
it rescinded the law meant to protect immigrant children who are fleeing violence. In their
meetings the Loretto delegation pleaded that this law remain unchanged, and so far the
law stands.


Rep. 0'Rouike anu son, staffei, anu Naiuca Cipiiano.
Chilu uetainees at the Customs anu Boiuei Contiol
piocessing facility in Biownsville, Texas.
The Work Continues

The Peace Engagement Project builds on a long tradition of advocacy by Loretto
Community members, who work for justice and act for peace. It was a good opportunity
to leverage the insight of those working on the ground to bring some clarity to complex
issues.

The work continued as project members made their way
home to various locales across the country. Paulette
Peterson, a psychologist and expert on war trauma in the
military, reconnected with the office with Rep. Beto
ORourke to provide insights on veterans care at the VA
for one of his committee assignments.

Loretto at the UNs Sally Dunne just left for a trip to the
border town of Nogales south of Tucson, Arizona with
Lorettos Latin American Caribbean Committee. They plan
to walk across the border, bringing little hygiene kits,
socks and bandages for the children and families who
have been deported by the U.S. government to send them
home or let them stay.

As NGO Representative, Sally will continue her UN advocacy work alongside the Loretto
Community, collecting grassroots stories and tethering them to the global experience.


Supplemental:
Gordon, Ian: 70,000 Kids Will Show Up Alone at Our Border This Year. What Happens
to Them? Mother Jones, July/August 2014.