Consider This from NPR - How this Girl Scout troop offers community to migrant children

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

The Girl Scouts have been part of American childhood for generations. And now that quintessential experience is helping young girls, who are new to the United States get a sense of belonging. It comes through a Girl Scout troop based in one of New York City's largest migrant shelters. The shelter has around 3,500 migrants, and all of the Girl Scouts are children of families seeking asylum. For the last few weeks, NPR's Jasmine Garsd has been spending time with them, and brings us their their story.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Juliana Alvarez and her two daughters left their home in Colombia about a year ago to escape gang violence. She remembers the moment she sat her daughters down to explain the journey they were going to embark on. She told them, we're going to face difficult situations. Things will get tough. I don't know how we're going to make it. I don't know where we will live when we get there. I don't know anything. The journey was harrowing, but they all made it. Once they arrived in the United States, their struggles continued. It was tough adjusting to a new life.

She says she remembers one of her daughters coming back from school one day, upset because a classmate had told her she couldn't come to the school because it was for white people. Alvarez showed her daughter how to stand up for herself in those situations. Say, too bad, I'm a migrant, but I'm also a girl like you. She and her girls lived in one of New York City's biggest migrant shelters for about a year, where they found a special community, the Girl Scouts. Today, Alvarez is a volunteer mom leading the troop at the shelter. Consider this, around 180,000 migrants have come to New York City in the last two years, and some of the shelters are fostering groups that offer kids a sense of From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Consider This from NPR.

The Girl Scouts have been part of American childhood for generations. And for the last few weeks, NPR's Jasmine Garst has been spending time with a Girl Scout troop based in one of New York City's largest migrant shelters. All the Scouts are children of families who are seeking asylum. Here's their story. The world is very gray today. It's raining in New York City. From the outside, this building looks like any other old hotel in midtown Manhattan. But these days, it's one of the largest migrant centers in the city for families with children. Currently, around 3,500 are housed here. Inside, the light is dim

and there's the constant murmur of people shuffling in and out. But somewhere in the labyrinth of hallways, there's a room that's in Technicolor. Welcome to the meeting point for the Girl Scouts in partnership with New York City Health and Hospitals. The Scouts start trickling in. They're all ages K through 12. They're all recently arrived migrant children from Latin America. Once they sit down, the first order of business is... How do you feel today? Asks Juliana Alvarez, a volunteer troop leader. A girl named Alicia tries to respond in English.

Happy and... troop leader. A girl named Alicia tries to respond in English. Valiente, brave. Turns out Alicia got a shot today and she didn't cry once. Alvarez turns to another girl, Tajane. How do you feel? I'm sad, she responds. Tomorrow we have to leave this shelter. About 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York City in the last two years. City government has said it's overwhelmed and implemented a 60-day rule for shelter stays. Tahana's family's time is up.

And she says she doesn't know where they're going to live tomorrow. Juliana Alvarez, the volunteer mom who leads the troop today, says she knows exactly how these kids feel. She herself lived in this shelter for about a year with her two daughters. Back in Colombia, Alvarez says her daughters were threatened by a local gang. I was scared, she says. I heard that on the journey to the U.S., you get raped or killed. Alvarez says it was terrifying, but once in the U.S., as a parent, your kids don't fully grasp what's happening. They tell me, Mom, when are we going back home to Colombia?

Or, Mom, why have we been eating pizza every day for four months? During one of the breaks, I get a chance to talk to Tahane, the Girl Scout who is sad today. She's 10. She's from Ecuador. I ask what she'd like to do when she grows up, and she answers with a question. Do you know what the sternocleidomastoid is? I have no idea. Tahane points to her neck. It's a muscle. She explains that she wants to be a doctor. Tahane's family can reapply to stay here or to go to another shelter. According to the city comptroller, 45% of families whose time has ended have been able to stay in shelter or transfer. If she can't stay here, she has the option to stay with Troop 6000 meetings

by Zoom. She frowns at that prospect. These are my sisters now, she says. This is probably the only sensibility that they have right now, right? Giselle Burgess is the founder and senior director of Troop 6000 for families living in the NYC shelter system. She got the idea over a decade ago when she and her daughters were living in a shelter in Queens. She says as soon as migrants started coming into New York, the troop was ready to create this chapter of Girl Scouts. Still, a lot of the curriculum had to be adapted.

Take an activity like the cookie sales, which Girl Scouts are famous for. Here, it turns into an exercise in math and learning American currency. How many boxes can I buy with what you have? My mom can buy five boxes. All around the room, there's drawings of the subway lines and penciled maps of the cities. Also, handwritten letters. This was part of another recent project. Write a letter to girls who want to come to America. Here's one of them, written by a nine-year-old scout. My advice for girls who want to come to the U.S.

is that you have to be very strong, and you have to really want it, because this country has a lot of opportunities, but the journey will not be easy. It's a stark reminder that many of these kids recently made a journey that is dangerous, even deadly. When I grow up, I want to save people. A lot of people die, says Astrid. She's 12. She's from Venezuela.

She wants to join the U.S. military. I'm ready, she says. I walked through the jungle to get here, to the U.S. The troop has two Master of Social Work candidate interns who attend every meeting and monitor for signs of trauma, anxiety, and depression. Outside of these doors, it is trauma. Meredith Mascara is the CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater New York. She says she thinks about hearing her own grandparents talk about immigration when she looks at these girls. They will be the ones running the city. I'm sure we have elected officials that are passing through. It's the story goes on. It's what our relatives did.

They'll be telling those stories to their kids and to their grandkids. And I'm proud that Girl Scouts is a part of that. But for now, it's fun and games. Snacking, learning to pronounce Girl Scout cookies with names that, for a non-English speaker, might as well be called sternocleidomastoid cookies. Adventurous food, lemon up, thin mince, truffle. Grabbing this distracted reporter's microphone to perform some tunes. And by the end of the meeting, doing the traditional Girl Scout goodbye, in which you stand in a circle, holding hands, and singing a song. One, two, three. Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver and the other is gold. Outside, the world can feel like it's on fire. But in this tiny corner, it always is a good day to make new friends. That was NPR's immigration correspondent Jasmine Garst reporting from New York. This episode was produced by Catherine Fink and Mia Venkat. It was edited by Alfredo Carbajal, Jeanette Woods, and Courtney Dourning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. And one more thing before we go.

You can now enjoy the Consider This newsletter. We'll still help you break down a major story of the day, but you'll also get to know our producers and hosts and some moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.