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53 YELLOW SPRINGS NEWS The GUIDE to YELLOW SPRINGS 2019 – 20 • Information and Assistance Seniors and caregivers can call/e-mail the Yellow Springs Senior Center or Council for information on senior/caregiving issues and services. The Council’s Directory of Services and Support is available at the Center. • Partners in Care (PIC) Program Designed to keep seniors (60+) in their own or family member’s home for as long as possible. Depending on need, in-home services are purchased from local agencies. Council staff works with the Yellow Springs Senior Center when assisting Yellow Springs seniors and families. • Caregiver Support Caregiver Resource Center – information and materials on a wide variety of topics to review, borrow & keep. Caregiver support groups, educational and wellness programs and respite care. Support for Greene County Seniors & Caregivers 937-376-5486 or 1-888-795-8600 /www.gccoa.org Programs provided by the Council on Aging are possible through a countywide senior services levy. Greene County Council on Aging mminde jberman mmindesign@aol.com humerusjkb@aol.com DESIG ILL USTRATION innovative design solutions web, print& identity iconic illustration & cartoons 937.767.2330 Chamber Music in Yellow Springs 2019–2020 Sirius Quartet Sunday, September 22, 2019 Maxwell String Quartet Sunday, October 27, 2019 Goldstein-Peled-Fiterstein Trio Sunday, February 9, 2020 Catacoustic Consort Sunday, March 22, 2020 Finals of 35th Annual Competition Sunday, April 26, 2020 First four concerts at 7:30 p.m., the Competition Finals at 5:30 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church, 314 Xenia Avenue. Ticket information: www.cmys.org • 374-8800 This article was published in December 2018. By CAROL S IMMONS T he progress in the summer and fall of 2018 of the “migrant caravan” of Central American asylum seekers making their way north to the U.S.-Mexi- can border sparked months of condemna- tion by President Trump, who threatened a lethal response, sending U.S. troops to stop the migrants from entering the country. With as many as 15,000 asylum seekers having arrived in the area around Tijuana, Mexico, near San Diego, Calif. — the loca- tion of a legal entry processing site — the situation grew more tense Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, when U.S. border patrol agents deployed tear gas over the border, an act widely denounced across the country and internationally. Locally, the situation at the border and the critical circumstances of the people seeking asylum has sparked deep concern among Yellow Springs residents, who spear- headed humanitarian aid responses and worked to raise wider awareness about the crisis. Among them are a documentary film - maker, Antioch College community mem - bers visiting the Mexican border, Quakers focusing on immigrant justice and Antioch students hosting a clothing drive in coop - eration with resident Cristina Hipp, who is collecting basic supplies for the migrants. Hipp, a teacher and mother of three, said that the knowledge of the asylum seekers, many women and children, owning nothing but the clothes they wear and living in uncertain and dire conditions, broke her heart. And she couldn’t ignore it. “I couldn’t imagine [celebrating] Christ - mas with all there is going on down there,” Hipp said. She decided that her family would put their Christmas preparations toward gathering and delivering basic supplies for the Central American people waiting to make their case for entry into the U.S. She planned to drive them down herself. “I just wanted to put in the work,” she said. On the ground at the border Yellow Springs resident and Antioch alum Alex Rolland, an activist journalist SUBMITTED PHOTO Yellow Springs resident Alex Rolland, who is working on a documentary film about the migrant caravan seeking asylum in the United States, spent time in late 2018 along the U.S.-Mexican border. who is making a documentary film about the migrant caravan, confirms the dire conditions facing the asylum seekers. “People are understandably desper- ate,” Rolland said in a phone interview. “Mothers and their children, with only the clothes on their backs, don’t have a safe place to go.” A founder of Renegade Media Collec- tive, which formed during the Standing Rock action against the Dakota Access Pipeline, Rolland spent two-and-a-half weeks at the border around Tijuana in November 2018, and was headed down after the Thanksgiving holiday. Having interviewed hundreds of migrants, he said the asylum seekers faced great dangers and depredations just get - ting to the U.S. border. Of the 12,000 to 15,000 migrants in the Tijuana area, 7,000 to 9,000 are Hon- duran, while others are Salvadoran and Guatemalan, he said. Rolland affirmed that the migrants are fleeing “highly impoverished living condi - tions” as well as pervasive violence, the two of which are often linked. The violence is so prevalent, “they speak of it almost as an afterthought,” he said, “like, ‘Oh yeah, my uncle was kidnapped.’” The violence is especially life-threat- ening for “more vulnerable elements of the group,” particularly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, Rolland said. The migrants, whose “primary mode of transportation was walking,” came together in the so-called “caravan” for safety and support. Nevertheless most have been robbed at least once, while many were AID FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS— Locals work for migrant justice Continued on page 54