​Dear Supporters of Ajo Samaritans,
The summer of 2024 brought record breaking heat to the Arizona borderlands. Despite this, a small group of intrepid volunteers continued providing humanitarian aid.

In the Ajo corridor, between July 1 and November 30 the Ajo Samaritans with the support of many allied individuals and groups hiked into the desert and left 137 gallons of water along with food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid
items. We maintained the Ajo humanitarian aid office open hours on most Friday and Saturday mornings, allowing residents and visitors access to humanitarian aid information.

In addition to the heat this summer, Ajo experienced an extreme wind event that damaged the roof of “the barn” which is a humanitarian aid station maintained by the Ajo Samaritans and used by many groups and individuals. We were able
to have the roof repaired in order to continue to provide a staging place for humanitarian work in our area, thanks to your donations and ongoing support.

The Ajo Samaritans collaborate with many other groups. Sadly, the extreme weather in our area causes some desert travelers to get lost or left behind. Across the summer several Search and Rescue groups including the Aguilas del
Desierto and the Blue Armadillos came to the Ajo corridor to look for individuals who were known to have gone missing in our area. Individuals from the Ajo Samaritans joined in some of these searches. Here is a link to a news story about one of those searches which gives you a sense of the vastness and heat of the summer Sonoran Desert as well as the heartbreak of the families missing their loved ones.

In October, the Ajo Samaritans welcomed a group from Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix. The eight students and 2 staff members accompanied Samaritan facilitators on a desert water drop and left 17 gallons of water to help prevent migrant suffering and death. Hosting groups like these helps us to focus on the part of our mission which is educating ourselves and others about the need for a humanitarian rather than a militarized response in our borderlands. As we gear up for the busy winter season in Ajo, we will begin monthly public trainings and orientations in December. These trainings provide information to visitors, community members and potential new volunteers about the humanitarian needs in the borderlands and how we, as an organization, choose to respond. We focus on our values of nonviolence, consent, transparency, solidarity and respect for human rights and we encourage like-minded individuals to join our work.

Now, as we approach this holiday season, we hope that you’ll consider donating to help us continue our work. Your donations help us buy food, water and medical supplies. They help us maintain our humanitarian spaces. They allow us
to support the groups like the Search and Rescue groups mentioned above. Donations keep our vehicles repaired and fueled up. And, in particular, if you are interested in donating or helping to fund the purchase of a desert worthy vehicle
(reliable 4 wheel drive and high clearance, functioning air conditioner, room for both passengers and gear), please let us know! You can get in touch with us at [email protected] . You can donate via our website: https://www.ajosamaritans.com. You can also mail a donation to: Ajo Samaritans; PO Box 793; Ajo, AZ 85321

The Humanitarian Aid Office
Also, as we continue to add to our volunteer base, the Ajo Samaritans, in collaboration with many other humanitarian groups (Border Angels, No More Deaths Phoenix, No More Deaths Tucson, Border Relief Collective) are working to set up advanced first aid trainings for our groups. Since our work often takes us into remote desert locations, we encounter individuals with a variety of medical conditions. We support our members in becoming certified as Wilderness First Responders. This involves online work as well as taking a week-long in-person intensive training course, and is a great opportunity for different aid groups to learn life-saving skills together. If you are interested in supporting humanitarian workers receiving this training, please consider donating at: https://gofund.me/cd4add1f

And whether or not you are able to donate, we hope you will help change the narrative about people moving through our borderlands. In these days, in which so much language in the press and even by public officials is demonizing individuals that are migrating in search of a safe and stable life, we hope you will encourage your friends, family and others you may engage with to remember that all humans are worthy and deserving of basic human rights and dignity.
​
Love and Peace,
Ajo Samaritans

Dear Friends,
Welcome to the Ajo Samaritans e-newletter. Do not worry we are not going to bombard your inbox with updates or requests for money – although should anything you read in the newsletter inspire you to make a donation we would be most appreciative. This occasional newsletter will help us to include you in our community, share our stories, and build connections between people of conscience who are committed to humanitarian aid at the US southern and northern borders and everywhere in between.

CELEBRATIONS and CHALLENGES for a New Year in 2021
We celebrate the immediate changes that the Biden Administration has taken by executive action to end some of the most inhumane and damaging polices of the previous administration. The American Immigration Law Association has a great resource for understanding these changes in detail https://www.aila.org/advo-media/issues/all/first-100-days#changes

More than this we celebrate the strength and resilience of people who have been forced to wait in Mexico to have their asylum claims heard or to be reunited with their families. We honor the courage of people who have chosen not to remain at the border, but to return to their home countries even in the face of personal, political, economic or climate violence perpetrated against them.

We recognize the fortitude of long time US residents who have been separated from their families through deportation and continue to attempt the journey across the desert even in the face of a monstrous border wall and ever increasing militarization and surveillance.

With our hope for the future comes many challenges.

We continue to balance harm reduction strategies to mitigate unseen dangers such as COVID and seen dangers such as hunger, thirst, lack of shelter and the need for medical care in our support for people at the shelters in Mexico and on their journeys to the US.

We seek to anticipate new areas of need for solidarity such as transportation, access to legal aid and social
support in our community and at communities across the US. We look to heal physical and emotional wounds, exacerbated by four years of division, within ourselves, in our community, across the border and in the desert environment #teardownthewall

Thank you for being with us during this coming year of hope and challenge. 

The Ajo Samaritans are people of conscience who are continuing the historical work of providing humanitarian aid to travelers in the desert in the Ajo, Arizona area. Our mission is to relieve suffering and prevent deaths of all travelers regardless of immigration status.

Dear Friends,
We have seen many changes to our humanitarian aid work over the past couple of months. In addition to our work in the desert and at the shelters in Sonoyta, we are collaborating with many community groups here in Ajo to offer support to people seeking asylum who have been abandoned by Border Patrol in our town. If you would like to make a contribution to providing COVID testing, a hot meal, a cool drink and transportation please click here and select “Ajo Community Support” in the drop-down menu. As we navigate these new challenges, we continue to put water in the desert and take clothes, shoes and blankets to the shelters. Here are two stories from members of our Desert Aid and Shelter Working Groups...

A Walk in the Desert by Kevin
Wake before sunrise, coffee up. Pack water, snacks, compass, my old medic bag. Finish my second cup of coffee, load my backpack in my vehicle, and head to the Aid Office. Our crew for the day meets up at the Aid Office. Have a conversation
about where we are headed, what is needed for the drop (water, beans, small comfort kits containing toothpaste, deodorant etc.). We load up and head out. We drive deep into the desert and arrive at our parking area. We have permits for each area Organ Pipe National Monument and Cabeza Prieta. We load our packs and begin to hike. This hike is flat at the beginning then rises to a desert mountain pass. This pass is used by migrants, the trail is well worn and there are foil tuna packets and black gallon jugs that the migrants abandon on the arduous journey upwards of 100 miles. We are not hiking that far thankfully. Most of our crew carries 4 gallons of water and a couple of cans of beans.

We hike on, our drop is 5 miles out. Some chat, the rest hike silently. We continue on for a few hours until we reach our first drop. We check to see if any of the water has been used by migrants. This drop has been cleaned out by the migrants. It is a rewarding feeling that we are putting water out in the useful spots. We leave some of our water and continue on to the next drop. This drop has been animalized, the ravens have pecked holes in the water jugs. This occurs from time to time. We
empty the water in the animalized jugs and replace them with fresh jugs. We place a plastic crate over the jugs and line it with cardboard, so animalization doesn’t happen.

We begin our hike back, stopping for lunch in a cool spot under a Palo Verde tree. Fueled and water consumed we head towards the vehicles. Arriving tired and foot sore. We gather and discuss the day, and what was good and what may have been better. We say our farewells and head back to town.

Sonoyta by Jan
“Que necesita?” I ask a young man who has been pushed to the table as a newly arrived migrant. He just looks at me blankly. “Necesita pantalones? Camisa? Zapatos?” He answers, “Whatever you want to give me. What I’m wearing is all I
have.” I look at his ill-fitting dirty jacket, ragged pants and old shoes. I quickly get him a pair of pants, shirt, socks and shoes. He asked for underwear, but I haven’t brought any. I tell him I will next week. He seems shocked that we produced this in minutes for him. Next in line a young man from Turkey. He speaks perfect English and tells me he knows 5 languages and that people from Turkey are very smart. He says he needs nothing. The following week, I decide to bring him clothes anyway: pants, shirt, jacket. He can’t believe it. He just keeps saying, “You are so kind.”

So begins the day at a temporary shelter in Sonoyta where a steady stream of people come and go. Many are families that stay there or at abandoned buildings around town. Some have been here a year, waiting for a chance at asylum. Carol and I come each week, bringing clothing, medicine, diapers, food donations, shoes, always shoes, and dog food for strays they take in. We go on to another shelter where there are all men. We bring them what they request: usually pants and shoes are at the top of the list. But also, hygiene supplies for a constantly-changing population of 90 or so people. “Juanita, can you get me my medicine? I’m diabetic.” “Carolina, can you help with dog food for the puppies?”

Once a week, sometimes twice when needed, we spend the day at the shelters in Sonoyta. The people we meet enrich our lives for sure, and we hope the small kindness that we show are remembered on a very long journey from sometimes thousands of miles away. Thank you for reading, learning about, engaging and supporting our work. 

In solidarity, Ajo Samaritans
[email protected]