Monika Marie and Panchito Olachea are from different sides of the border. They have found a way to work together to help migrant families waiting for their chance to seek asylum.
A crisis can bring people together who might never have met. That was the case with a Holocaust survivor and a Mexican ambulance driver who joined forces to help Central American families on the Mexican side hoping to ask the U.S. for asylum.
As a German Jew, 80-year-old Patagonia resident Monika Marie sees stranded asylum seekers at the border through different eyes than most.
"We fled. I'm a refugee. We lost everything," she said, "During World War II, my mother packed up three children in the middle of the night and fled."
Monika has joined Voices From the Border, a volunteer group of women from Southern Arizona. The group formed in January 2017 after the Tucson Women's March. When news came of families being separated at the border, the group quickly activated. The philosophy of the group is that no one can do everything, but everyone can to something. "I'm a baker. I baked bread for a long time," said Monika Marie. "I said, 'Well, they are going down to bring supplies, so they are going to take the bread down for me.'"
Health issues keep Monika from traveling. She worries how will the group distribute huge sheets of bread to the people stranded at the border?
Enter 60-year-old Panchito Olachea, a nurse with his own ambulance. He volunteers to take members of Voices From the Border — and Monika's bread and other supplies — to all the Mexican shelters now housing asylum seeking families across the border. The group has made more than a dozen trips.
"I really loved when I met these ladies," said Panchito. "We have become close. We have become friends."
Monika and Panchito have never met, but Panchito says, in a way, they break bread together every time Monika bakes and sends that bread to share with refugees.
You can follow Voices From the Border on Facebook.
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