{"id":3001,"date":"2024-03-18T04:53:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T04:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/18\/for-hundreds-of-migrant-children-living-in-shelters-at-the-border-this-cnn-heros-mobile-classrooms-offer-education-and-stability-cnn\/"},"modified":"2024-03-18T04:53:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T04:53:32","slug":"for-hundreds-of-migrant-children-living-in-shelters-at-the-border-this-cnn-heros-mobile-classrooms-offer-education-and-stability-cnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/18\/for-hundreds-of-migrant-children-living-in-shelters-at-the-border-this-cnn-heros-mobile-classrooms-offer-education-and-stability-cnn\/","title":{"rendered":"For hundreds of migrant children living in shelters at the border, this CNN Hero\u2019s mobile classrooms offer education and stability | CNN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"For<\/div>


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\n Tijuana, Mexico<\/span>
\n CNN<\/span>
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0
\n <\/cite>\n<\/p>\n

\n Estefan\u00eda Rebell\u00f3n knows the trauma that stems from being forced to flee your home for safety. She understands the fear and uncertainty felt by the more than 70 million migrant and forcibly displaced children around the world.\n <\/p>\n

\n She was a migrant child, too.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy family\u2019s case is the case of many refugees and migrants at the border. It was never a choice for our family to leave our home. We were forced out of it,\u201d Rebell\u00f3n, 32, said.\n <\/p>\n

\n She was 10 when her family fled Cali, Colombia, because of death threats to her father, who had been forced into hiding. They settled in Miami, and with the support of teachers at school, Rebell\u00f3n thrived. Now, through her nonprofit, Yes We Can World Foundation<\/a>, she provides education for children living in limbo in shelters at the US-Mexico border.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rebell\u00f3n moved from Miami to Los Angeles when she was 21 to pursue an acting career. In 2018, she was so moved after volunteering in migrant camps in Tijuana that she put her career on hold.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere were no schools set up to help these kids. They were walking around the camps barefoot,\u201d she said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t forget about what I had just seen. And I was like, \u2018I literally have to go back.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Rebell\u00f3n and her partner, Kyle Schmidt, used about $1,000 of their savings to buy tents and supplies and set up a makeshift school at the border. They enlisted volunteer teachers to provide learning opportunities in the camps.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe set up a school overnight and \u2026 told just a couple of kids,\u201d Rebell\u00f3n said. \u201cIt spread throughout the camp, and we had like over 50 kids surrounding us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the months that followed, when those families living in the camps were moved to shelters, Rebell\u00f3n and Schmidt wanted to continue offering educational services.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI thought, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we turn a bus into a mobile classroom, and we could take it to all the different shelters?\u201d Rebell\u00f3n said. \u201cWe literally just Googled and YouTubed how to convert a bus into a mobile classroom.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Over the next year, Rebell\u00f3n and Schmidt bought and gutted a bus, partnered with shelters, and drove the transformed bus over the border. Their goal: to provide bilingual educational programs to keep children in school.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAll the families that we work with and all the children that we work with on a daily basis are legally seeking asylum,\u201d Rebell\u00f3n said. \u201cThey\u2019re going through all the processes that are being required of them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Rebell\u00f3n\u2019s organization hires professional teachers and tailors their curriculum to the specific needs of each student. The program has been accredited by the education secretary in Mexico and serves children ages 3 to 15 \u2013 a crucial period for education, Rebell\u00f3n says.\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Despite the challenges she faced as a migrant child, she says she was lucky to have teachers who advocated for her and guided her along the way.\n <\/p>\n

\n Many migrant children do not have this support and often fall through the cracks and miss valuable school time. Many have been on the road for months, if not years, and have difficulty attending school because they are often in transit, without a permanent home. Safety, economic instability, poverty, lack of transportation, and perceived legal status are also factors.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize that this is such a long process for families,\u201d Rebell\u00f3n said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just like you arrive at the border, you seek asylum, and your life is all rainbows. It takes decades and a lot of work and a lot of pain.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Rebell\u00f3n\u2019s family navigated a decades-long legal process to obtain political asylum and later US citizenship. Her parents, both lawyers by trade, were forced to abandon their careers in Colombia and take on new jobs in the US to support their family of five. Her mother worked multiple jobs as a caregiver and her father worked nights at Walmart. He has worked there full time for nearly 20 years.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAny time I get a chance, I share my immigration story with (the kids),\u201d Rebell\u00f3n said. \u201cI always want the kids that come through our programs to realize that being a migrant is not something they need to be ashamed of.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n \"Rebell\u00f3n's<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Today, Yes We Can Foundation educates 250-300 kids a day through its four school locations along the border and three mobile school buses. Since 2019, Rebell\u00f3n says the group has served more than 3,100 migrant children from 10 countries.\n <\/p>\n

\n Their program runs Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. School runs for the entire year, with no summer breaks. They also provide free uniforms, backpacks, and school supplies. Lessons focus on common core instruction in the subjects of language arts, math, and science as well as addressing practical and immediate needs like how to translate basic information including phone numbers and addresses.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI want our efforts to be something permanent,\u201d Rebell\u00f3n said. \u201cAnd that when it\u2019s all said and done, we will be proud to look back and say that we were there when people needed us the most.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Want to get involved? Check out <\/em>the Yes We Can World Foundation<\/em> website<\/em><\/a> and see how to help. <\/em>\n <\/p>\n

\n To donate to Yes We Can World Foundation via GoFundMe, <\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tijuana, Mexico CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Estefan\u00eda Rebell\u00f3n knows the trauma that stems from being forced to flee your home for safety. She understands the fear and uncertainty felt by the more than 70 million migrant and forcibly displaced children around the world. She was a migrant child, too. \u201cMy family\u2019s case is the case of many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/231005193333-estefania-rebellon-kid-art-cnnheroes.jpg?q=w_1110,c_fill","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[196,1388,4368,5298,233,2999,1652,3000,5292,5293,5297,407,2042,3001,1812,378,3097,112,5295,3159,3626,5294,1641,5296,1642,2954],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3003,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions\/3003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}