It has been a rough year for those of us who care about peace and social justice. Horrified, we have all observed the current administration attacking our deeply held beliefs, and eroding human and civil rights we believed were safe.
The truth is, their policies make no sense. They despise migrants and shut the door to them, yet continue to propagate policies and practices that force migration. They refuse to stop the illegal flow of weapons from the United States to violent criminal networks across the hemisphere, causing people to flee their homes in fear. They pardon a convicted drug dealer and former president, further destabilizing an already unstable country, while claiming to fight a war to end the drug trade. They shut down the agency charged with poverty alleviation, firing 10,000 people without cause, and without a plan to replace the work. The world’s most vulnerable people, made dependent on that lifeline, will have no choice but to migrate. And seizing Venezuela's oil tankers fractures an already unstable economy, leading even more people to migrate.
We can only make sense of it by looking at who benefits from the chaos: members of the current administration, including the president and the president’s family, and allied billionaires and corporations.
Quixote Center is not a large organization, but we are mighty in our impact and unique in our approach. The foundation of our work is direct assistance to families, cooperatives, and communities seeking to improve their financial situation, support their children, and remain in their homes. We work in two of the most vulnerable and challenging countries in this hemisphere: Haiti and Nicaragua. We focus on programs that will generate income and stability over the long term, and we are seeing great success. Our emails in the coming days will share the details.
To complement these programs, we work to influence policies in the United States that impede the success of the people we serve in Haiti, Nicaragua, and across the hemisphere. We participate in coalitions and sign organizational letters, and we also lead several initiatives, including to end illegal weapons trafficking to Haiti. The cornerstone of this advocacy work is encouraging and enabling each of you to take action on these issues. This year we have generated nearly 10,000 letters to Congress and the administration. Advocacy is tough under this administration, but we remain engaged and we ensure that your voices are still heard. Just in the last week, thanks to persistent advocacy, the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act passed, which will hold accountable the criminals who finance gang activities in Haiti.
The third leg of our work is to offer to you, our supporters, critical analysis of key issues to counter the noise and disinformation in the media. We think understanding the issues that impact our lives as well as lives across the hemisphere is critical to our democracy and to achieving our vision of a just and humane world.
It is the end of the year and the season of giving. Please consider a donation to Quixote Center to support our work during these difficult times.
Our end-of-year focus is to raise funds for our work in Gouin, Haiti. In the coming days we will send out a few emails explaining the impact of the program and the plans to expand next year.
We thank you for your support. Our work belongs to you.
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