Gaby Zavala

Gaby is our November 2019 Featured Giant, and rightfully so. She is a humanitarian worker and activist, and in the wake of Migrant Protection Protocols ('Remain in Mexico' policy) founded the Resource Center for Asylum Seekers in Mexico. Read our interview with her below - she will blow your mind!

Jenny Kearney: How did you first get into activism?

Gaby Zavala: I’ve been working in non-profit organizations since I was 19 years old, all in the area of community affairs. My very first job out of high school was the local Planned Parenthood in Brownsville, Texas. I went on to work at other well-established organizations like Valley AIDS Council and La Union del Pueblo Entero as a counselor and community organizer, respectively. This experience, along with my love of justice and advocacy of underrepresented communities, shaped my involvement in activism. Although my surrounding community has been a place with a great need for research and understanding of how our culture affects areas such as public health, the most recent changes in immigration policies have catapulted my role within the organizing community, especially within the context of persons seeking asylum.

JK: What has been your most important accomplishment as an organizer?

GZ: One of my most important accomplishments as an organizer is collaborating with a Baptist church to establish one of the migrant respite centers in Brownsville, Texas, this last April when Customs and Border Protection USCIS began to drop off asylum seekers in our city that had been recently processed and released to their sponsors. Since then, we have served more than 7,000 asylum seekers with showers, food, new clothing, prayers, diapers, baby bottles, wipes, etc. The contribution the center makes in establishing a standard of care for asylum seekers with respect to trauma-informed care is a personal point of pride for this effort I helped organize.

JK: What goals are you currently working towards?

GZ: I’m currently working on a project that involves organizing a center of assistance for asylum seekers and refugees called the Resource Center for Asylum Seekers in Mexico. In a response to asylum seekers being returned to the Mexican city of Tamaulipas across the border with Brownsville through the MPP policy (Migrant Protection Protocols), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, I decided to organize a safe space where the asylum seeker community in Matamoros can go to connect to resources that promote self-sufficiency.

We started in July, and have now acquired a 2-story building in Matamoros that is home for various organizations providing valuable services to the asylee community within the area. The center has recently become the home of Lawyers for Good Government which provides asylum seekers legal assistance in Matamoros throughout their immigration proceedings. Our office complements their work by acting as liaisons to the residents in the camp to recruit persons with upcoming court dates to attend a consultation, deliver court documents, and making announcements daily to the camp about news regarding legal matters.

The facility has become a key component in allowing people to access the tools necessary for their success as it provides office space, conference rooms and wifi in a clean and sanitary environment. It has storage space available for humanitarian organizations and donations to asylum seekers. We also provide a safe space for asylum seekers to come in and utilize our resources and technology for printing, copying, and volunteers assist people in registering for consultations with attorneys and helping them craft emails, etc. We provide storage spaces for medical equipment for the doctors on-site provided by Global Response Management (GRM) and work with them regularly to provide direct aid to asylum seekers with medical needs. We connect families with sponsors for medical costs and help navigate them through the medical system in Matamoros to get them the specific medical care they need.

Other projects we support are engineering projects within the camp like bringing clean water to the asylum seekers for showers and clothes washing, hand washing stations, and water filtration systems for clean drinking water. We connect asylum seekers with work to run the projects provided. We sponsor work trainings, as well as help to supply uniforms and help with transportation. We are working with GRM to initiate a crafting project where asylum seekers can sell their items on etsy.com and keep 80% of profits. We are also the home to Trinity on the Borders Capilla del Migrante. (Chapel of the Migrant). We support volunteers as they spend time with the families, learning about their individual stories, their needs, their educational backgrounds, and their desire for work. We take the time to talk with them to see what kinds of help would be most useful to them to ensure success in their lives and during their quest to establishing a better life for their families and themselves.

JK: What is something that everyone can do today to help?

GZ: Donate cash! We need lots of it to support with everyday needs like medical needs (lab work, diagnostics, specialists) and transport to other cities for court dates.