Over 30 times in the past two years, Elizabeth Vasquez, president of Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, has traveled to Mexico to volunteer in orphanages.
Vasquez volunteers with the help of Steps of Love, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, that strives to improve the lives of Mexican children living in shelters. Working with local organizations, Steps of Love helps to provide preventive health care, mentoring, remedial education and adequate shelter.
“The first time I went, I couldn’t stop going,” Vasquez says.
After Vasquez went by herself, she brought some of her sorority sisters on the next trip.
“It’s an amazing experience for my sisters to bond with these kids,” she says.
Many of Vasquez’s sorority sisters do not speak Spanish, but that doesn’t hinder their communication. “It’s incredible to see how the language barrier is not a problem,” she says.
Steps of Love currently cares for children from birth to 12 years old.
“We have a lot of abandonment cases,” says Executive Director Jennifer Jermaine. “When (families) are caught crossing the border, the parents end up in jail and the kids end up in shelters.”
Jermaine says, because of this situation, Steps of Love focuses on mental health rehabilitation. “We give pretty intensive counseling and, if they need it, we get them into psychiatric care,” says Jermaine.
Steps of Love takes volunteers on a two and a half hour journey to Sonoyta, Mexico, the location of one of the two shelters the organization works with.
“We just do a lot interacting with the kids,” she says.
Jermaine says that they are currently raising funds to build a teenager shelter, but that feat is down the road, she says.
Heavily involved in the organization, Steps of Love board of directors member Kathleen Duncan travels to volunteer once a week for the last three years.
“The kids are so resilient with so much potential,” she says. “I keep going because these kids matter and are important.”
“They are kids,” she says. “They haven’t done anything wrong. Their parents haven’t been able to take care of them.”
“It’s not their fault,” Duncan says.
Duncan believes that every one of the kids has the potential to do great things.
“Through education and psychological services, we can help them break that cycle of poverty,” Duncan says
“I’ve been able to see seven kids from Rocky Point be adopted into wonderful family situations,” says Duncan.
Duncan says because of the services they receive, it helps the adoption process. “
Duncan and her husband, owners of Duncan Family Farms in Buckeye, recently formed a civic association to help the children out even more.
“We will be working with the current administration in funding an entire professional team at the shelters,” Duncan says.
This team will include social workers, teachers, psychologists, an attorney and others to assist the children. “We’ll be able to do a lot more for the kids,” she says.
Esmeralda Peralta-Aroz, Duncan Family Farms Education Coordinator, was first introduced to Steps of Love through her work at the Be A Leader Foundation, an organization that provides college guidance for high school students.
Duncan had the opportunity to talk to Peralta-Aroz’s class.
“It was really impactful,” says Peralta-Aroz. “She simply just told stories about children who weren’t as lucky as they were.”
Some of Peralta-Aroz’s students were able to travel down to the shelters to experience it first hand.
Peralta-Aroz says that some of her students specifically referenced their trip and Duncan’s class speech in their personal statements on their college application.
“The only difference between them and the children was the border,” Peralta-Aroz says.
She says that not only was it an eye-opening experience for her, but for the entire class.
One of Peralta-Aroz’s students at the time, Viva Valdez, was first introduced to Steps of Love by the Be a Leader Foundation during her senior boot camp summer workshop.
Valdez, now a current ASU student, has the chance to work with the children.
“We worked on a lot of arts and crafts packets for the kids so that they activities to do in their spare time,” Valdez says.
Two years later, Vasquez and her sorority continue to travel to the shelter to volunteer. On top of this, they organize an annual back-to school drive and Christmas fundraiser for the shelter.
Double majoring in both child psychology and social work, Vasquez hopes to have a career path in helping children.
“Kids have always been an interest to me,” Vasquez says. “I’m the oldest of six kids, so a motherly instinct just naturally came to me.”
Vasquez is currently interning at an organization similar to Steps of Love. She says that she eventually would like to work for ChildHelp, an organization that helps victims of child abuse.
