Dear Friend,
Since July 2019, my foundation, the Isabel Allende Foundation, has supported the Young Center. In helping children who come to this country on their own, the Young Center ensures the most vulnerable among those seeking safety are not alone.
My latest book, A Long Petal of the Sea, is a story of refugees. It’s the story of 2,200 people from the Spanish civil war, who, in 1939, immigrated to Chile. They left Europe, where they were in concentration camps, and they came to Chile, where they were very well-received. And this is a happy story of refugees. Why did I write about that? Because the theme is in the air. We are hearing about refugees, asylum-seekers, and immigrants everywhere. And I think that literature has a role to play, to remind people about the past, to connect people, and to make people understand that what happens to somebody else can happen to us.
COVID-19 has proven to us that we are all one family, in one planet. And so, we must have solidarity and help each other, especially the young ones, the most vulnerable, the children.
I am very proud to support the Young Center. The work they do with children is extraordinary. Most children who come to this country seeking a better life are running away from extreme poverty, from violence, and from abuse. Here, they face the possibility of deportation, and they have to defend themselves in court. Their best interests need to be represented. They need protection. And the Young Center provides that. So, please join me in supporting the Young Center.
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Thank you,
Isabel Allende
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