Watch Rosario Dawson Read a Powerful Letter from a Child Refugee: 'We Need Your Help'
Rosario Dawson is helping shine a light on child refugee stories.
The actress, 39, has partnered up with the San Fernando Valley Refugee Center to raise awareness about the refugee crisis in the U.S. and how children are affected by it.
A new video she’s collaborated on with the organization comes in the wake of the President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy at the border to Mexico that has torn over 2,300 children from their parents. Trump signed an executive order banning his own policy on Wednesday.
In the video, Dawson reads a powerful letter from a child refugee who crossed the Mexican border seeking asylum.
“On my way home from school one evening I was violently beaten by two gang members,” Dawson reads in the video. “I managed to escape their grasp and fled. Days later I received a threat: Join them, or my family and I would be killed. I’ll never forget the horrible journey through Mexico. The things I went through. But I’m here now, and I can’t look back.”
She continues, “Thousands of us cross the desert into the United States from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. We left behind everyone we loved as we fled from gang conscription, forced prostitution and even the promise of certain death. We lived our entire lives under the rule of gangs — gangs that the U.S. created. We’ve been forced to make a journey no child should ever have to make, and a real shot at asylum is a real chance at safety. We are here, and we need your help.”
“The Refugee Children’s Center is in desperate need of help to pay for the lawyers who can fight for these survivors,” Dawson concludes in the video above. “Please share this video and consider contributing to the center.”
To learn how to donate, visit the San Fernando Valley Refugee Center website.
