UPDATE: September 2020

Since we began, a little over a year ago, we have grown so much that we have hired Maria Lourdes (Lulu) to help us full time in Tijuana. Lulu works tirelessly for One Story at a Time.

She spends each week checking in on the shelters, identifying families or individuals in need, assessing those who will benefit from our efforts, and then coordinating local resources when she cannot conduct the activities herself.

Lulu teaches art, music, and stress management. She helped to orchestrate and translate Peter’s very first concert. She takes kids and adults to doctors and dentists. This month she took two families from Central America, who had not seen the ocean for more than two years, to the beach on her days off.

Her experience with Central American cultures, Mexico, and the United States make her uniquely qualified to carry out One Story’s mission. She has been our eyes and ears since the very start and continues to be with us each step along the way.

Lulu is a teacher, social worker, and human rights activist for migrants. She has spent 30 years in both north and southern borders in Mexico with migrants and refugees. She has also worked in Central America (Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala) and Mozambique, Africa.

As we have grown in size, strength, and impact, we can now pay Lulu monthly to focus on our stories 100%! We also have been able, with the help of Little Mercies, to provide Lulu with a car to help her deliver food, clothing, and other donated items.

We are so fortunate to have her as a part of our team.

Lulu is one of our more significant support personnel in Mexico. She has a master’s degree in Pastoral Studies and 30 years’ experience working with migrants, refugees, and the poor in Africa, in Central America, and along the Mexican border.

Through her social work, she builds bridges for people obtaining the basics, like food, shelter, and medicine. She would like to find ways to bring literacy, meditation, dancing, and art into the shelters.

Lulu helps migrants in the most vulnerable of situations: those who are living in shelters and people who want to stay in Mexico, greeting busloads of families coming from the poverty- and gang-infested areas of Central America. She helps them locate immediate resources (some of them have not had food for days!), finds them appropriate medical care, and supports them in finding the next step in creating a new life.

She works tirelessly, using public transportation, walking up hills and deep into gulches to visit those in need and the agencies that can help them.

We deeply admire Lulu’s ability to provide assistance and reach more and more people. She also helps us find our next story, where we can offer help and hope and inspiration.