Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
WHERE CAN WE LIVE IN PEACE? The Migrant Crisis
A film by Judy Jackson
Available for educational use: bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/wcan.html
WHERE CAN WE LIVE IN PEACE? investigates the migrant crisis through the eyes of Pastor Ignacio Martinez, the founder of ABBA safehouse in Celaya, Mexico. Here, thousands of migrants receive help.
The idea for ABBA began when Ignacio and his family would take food to migrants jumping freight trains. Some were sick, there was nowhere to wash or sleep. They were fleeing from gang violence, abject poverty and the effects of climate change places like in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, desperately searching for a place where they could care for their children in safety. In response, Ignacio founded ABBA, a place where the migrants could rest, receive food, and seek medical and psychological help. ABBA is also the only shelter in Mexico that cares for amputees whose injuries were sustained in falls while riding the trains (“La Bestia”) north into Mexico.
Now, ABBA has been donated land upon which to build Ignacio's vision: a sanctuary for injured migrants which, in addition to providing therapy and education, will have a cultural and human rights centre. Under his inspirational care, migrants are treated as human beings with dignity. In this world of nationalism and xenophobia, Ignacio’s work is vitally important.
WHERE CAN WE LIVE IN PEACE? The Migrant Crisis
A film by Judy Jackson
Available for educational use: bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/wcan.html
WHERE CAN WE LIVE IN PEACE? investigates the migrant crisis through the eyes of Pastor Ignacio Martinez, the founder of ABBA safehouse in Celaya, Mexico. Here, thousands of migrants receive help.
The idea for ABBA began when Ignacio and his family would take food to migrants jumping freight trains. Some were sick, there was nowhere to wash or sleep. They were fleeing from gang violence, abject poverty and the effects of climate change places like in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, desperately searching for a place where they could care for their children in safety. In response, Ignacio founded ABBA, a place where the migrants could rest, receive food, and seek medical and psychological help. ABBA is also the only shelter in Mexico that cares for amputees whose injuries were sustained in falls while riding the trains (“La Bestia”) north into Mexico.
Now, ABBA has been donated land upon which to build Ignacio's vision: a sanctuary for injured migrants which, in addition to providing therapy and education, will have a cultural and human rights centre. Under his inspirational care, migrants are treated as human beings with dignity. In this world of nationalism and xenophobia, Ignacio’s work is vitally important.
