Promoting Justice, Seeking Peace
Dear Friend,
I stepped into the executive director role at Quixote Center just over a year ago. It is my privilege to lead the Center into its next phase, and I am proud to share the accomplishments of our team this year.
This year we let go of some elements of our past, and introduced some new dreams. The Nicaraguan government closed our long-time partner, Asociación Roncalli. We remain in solidarity with the people of Nicaragua and, together with our Nicaraguan colleagues, we are discerning our next steps. We continue our commitment to the JMV Center in Gros Morne, Haiti, with new ideas and dreams for financial independence and security for the Center and the small-scale farmers its serves. Expanding life-giving, sustainable work in Haiti is a high priority, and we expect to report more about this next year.
We dream of a world where people can support themselves and their families with dignity and justice. We are not there yet. Poverty, climate-related emergencies, and violence, lead hundreds of millions of people to flee their homes in search of something better. We support their dreams through our work with the Franciscan Network on Migration. Our new-this-year solidarity travel program enables folks from the US to encounter the migrant experience first-hand. Through this program, we aim to influence the narrative, as well as policies, about migration.
The Quixote Center is unique. We address the economic issues underlying poverty through our work in Haiti and Nicaragua. We address the needs of those who flee for economic or other reasons, through our work to strengthen the capacity of migrant shelters in the Franciscan Network. We also address the root causes of misery through our work to influence and impact policies in the United States. We have strengthened that work this year, through an expanded social media presence, through deepening our work with coalitions in the U.S., and through providing opportunities for you, our supporters, to take action when it really matters.
To support this work, we have made some adjustments to our administrative structures, streamlining and cutting costs where we could. We shut down our old website and replaced it with an updated new site which better reflects who we are and who we are becoming. We are also exploring new and creative ways to fund the Center, now and into the future. None of this is possible without you. We are grateful for your ongoing support and confidence in the Quixote Center. In solidarity,
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Kim Lamberty, Executive Director |
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In Memoriam: Brother Francis O'Donnell
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Long-time Board Member and friend, Br. Francis O'Donnell died on July 22, 2022, at Stella Maris Hospice of complications from injuries sustained in a fall. Br. Frank has been a member of the Quixote Center board for eight years.We are grateful for his wisdom, steady guidance, dedication, good humor, and friendship. In Brother Frank's 62 years as a member of the Marianist Community, he spent the first 20 years in education, then went to law school at UMd. Over his career, he has championed the rights of students, inmates, tenants, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+ people, racial and ethnic minorities, and the poor. Br. Frank embodied the true Quixote spirit of dreaming impossible dreams, and tilting against the windmills of oppression.
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Haiti: Jean Marie Vincent Formation Center |
Through our partnership with the JMV Center in Haiti, the Quixote Center continues to sustain a large reforestation project, while at the same time initiating programs that will diminish their financial dependence on us for the future. This year the team began the process of expanding the nursery at the JMV Center to provide 50,000 sapling plantain trees to local farmers at low cost in time for the spring planting season in 2023. Plantains contribute to food security and are also a crucial cash crop, enabling families to send their kids to school and purchase needed supplies.
On August 14, 2021, an earthquake struck the city of Les Cayes and surrounding areas. The earthquake did tremendous damage in the area; twenty parishioners were killed at the church in Toirac when it collapsed during the earthquake. In January 2022, our partners at the JMV Center set up an emergency seed distribution to earthquake-impacted communities. The team sent seeds from our Gros Morne-based seed bank to Toirac and surrounding areas outside of Les Cayes and distributed them in preparation for the spring planting season.
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Photos:
Left: JMV Center agronomist Teligene gives a workshop to farmers. Right: One of six satellite nursersies created by the JMV Center's team. |
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Central America & Mexico: Franciscan Network on Migration
The Quixote Center launched a new program of solidarity travel to southern Mexico this year. Our goal in organizing these trips is to contribute to changing US mindsets about migration, and to provide the opportunity to hear about the migrant experience firsthand. We completed two trips this year, and we will be organizing another trip for the spring of 2023. If you are interested in joining us contact [email protected].
The La72 shelter in Tenosique hosts the solidarity trips. La72 is one of the larger shelters affiliated with our partner, the Franciscan Network on Migration (FNM). Franciscans launched FNM in 2018 to coordinate the work of Franciscan communities that were providing services to migrants in Central America and Mexico. FNM shelters provide critical services to thousands of migrants every day. The Quixote Center became the US-based fiscal sponsor of FNM in 2019, and we provide capacity-strengthening support to individual shelters and programs.
FNM's most recent program expands migrant services in Panama. The major focus of the work is along the Panama and Costa Rican border and in the capital. With Quixote Center support, the Panama team recently launched service trips to parishes that provide support for migrants coming through the Darien gap. The Darien gap is a dense jungle connecting Panama and Colombia. With passage controlled by armed groups, and no roadways, this is the most dangerous part of the journey for anyone crossing into Central America from South America.
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Photos: Left: the LGBTQIA+ space at La72. Education and Advocacy: Right: solidarity trip participants November 2022. |
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Education and Advocacy
Much of our advocacy in 2022 focused on the immigration policy known as Title 42, which is used to immediately expel migrants encountered at the border, denying them due process, including asylum screening. The United States has expelled 2 million people under Title 42.
The Quixote Center organized a demonstration in March of 2022 against Title 42 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a series of action alerts, we mobilized hundreds of constituents to speak out against the policy to members of Congress and to the administration. We also educated supporters, the media, and members of Congress about the impact of Title 42 for Haitian migrants. We coordinated the placement of an ad in The Hill calling for the end of all removals to Haiti. The ad was cosponsored by 18 other organizations and signed by over 600 individuals. A Federal court finally ended Title 42 in November of 2022, giving the Biden administration five weeks to bring the policy to a close.
The Quixote Center is working to change US policy toward Haiti. We are demanding that the US government halt its support for Ariel Henry, who took power following the assassination of former president Jovenel Moïse, and support a participatory transition process that gives voice to civil society organizations. We continue to demand that the US government halt all removals of Haitians from the United States, and end the policy of forced repatriations for those Haitians interdicted at sea. Haitian refugees must have access to asylum proceedings.
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Photos: Left and Right: demonstration against Title 42 at the CDC. Middle, flyer for Title 42 vigil. |
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Nicaragua: Asociación Roncalli
The government of Nicaragua closed our long-term partner, the Asociación Roncalli, in May 2022. The government of Nicaragua never provided specific reasons for the closure. They shut down the Institute through a legislative declaration closing dozens of organizations at once. The Asociación had no role in the current political conflict in Nicaragua, and fully complied with all government reporting requirements. No process exists for appealing such decisions. Our first priority at this time is to remain in solidarity with the Institute staff as they finalize discussions with the Nicaraguan government about the distribution of Institute resources; these discussions are now in their 7th month, but nearing completion. Once the Institute is able to complete this process, we will determine our next steps.
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Photos: Ceremony marking the closure of the Asociación Roncalli. |
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Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2022* |
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*FY 2022 represents audited figures for the period July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 |
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Note: Administration costs were inflated relative to program expenses for the year as the result of staff transitions, and the phasing out of large program disbursements to Nicaragua with the closure of the Asociación Roncalli. |
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Other Ways to Make an Impact Bequests: When you include the Center in your will, your work for justice lives on. You can designate a specific sum of money, or an asset such as stock, or a percentage of yourestate to the Quixote Center. Gifts of Stock: When you donate stocks, you may deduct the total current value of the stock as a charitable donation and you avoid the capital gains tax.
Donor-Advised Fund: If you have contributed to a donor-advised fund, the Center is eligible to receive such gifts. Consider designating a distribution to the Quixote Center.
Monthly Giving: We invite you to become a monthly giver! This growing group of supporters helps ensure that the Quixote Center has a steady income stream |
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Board of Directors Frank DeBernardo Serge Hyacinthe
Deborah Manley Dolly Pomerleau Nancy Sulfridge (Chair) Staff
Marianne Baldwin Alexandra Gulden Kim Lamberty Tom Ricker Volunteers
Mercy Coogan Sydney Gulden Cheryl Nichols Walter Winfield |
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~ Quixote Center ~
P.O. Box 1950, Greenbelt, MD 20768, (301) 699-0042, quixote.org Follow us on social mediaTwitter: @quixotecenter; Instagram: @quixote_center; Facebook: @QuixoteCenter; Youtube: Quixote Center; TikTok: @quixotecenter |
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