An immigrant mother who has to leave her children to feed her children. Who has to break their hearts to nourish their bodies. Who has to abandon to provide.
A refugee child who was separated from her family while fleeing conflict. Who found safety while losing her siblings. Who saved her life while cutting herself off from those who were her life.
The asylum seeker, who crosses the border into protection knowing they will never see home again. Knowing they will not know what it is to be whole again, in family, at home. Who must daily face the torture they endured for their beliefs, and the new torture of their separation.
The young child who one evening waits for her father to come home from work. Now she waits for him to be deported to a country she has never known.
The tragedies of life are often most sharply in display in the stories of migration. Behind every migration story you will find a sub-plot filled with poverty, abuse, conflict, and persecution. Tales of unimaginable terror and triumphant survival.
They come to our communities seeking peace. They come to this land seeking healing and rebirth.
Family is one of the most important factors in the rebuilding of a life that has been torn. Whether it is reuniting a family after prolonged separation, keeping one together as it looks for a new beginning, or finding a new family for those forever separated from their own, LIRS works to undue the contradictions of family separation. Because a family separated is a contradiction, it is illogical. For the definition of family is a bond between loved ones and not a gap or a whole.
LIRS believes “family values” are more than two words that get misused in political discourse. Family values must be the act of giving sacred value to the family and working to make and keep it whole.