Kids are sending postcards to Trump about his family separation policy

In the past few weeks, the Trump administration has been dogged by allegations and facts about their mistreatment of families and children at the US/ Mexico border.

Reports have been circulating for days about how children are being placed in cages at detainment centres after being separated from their parents.

Donald Trump has since signed an executive order, effectively ending the policy but for many families and others around the world, the damage has already been done.

One campaign that is hoping to raise awareness of the issue as well as raising money for those affected is #postcards4families.

The initiative has been set up by Karen Ross, an assistant professor of conflict working in Massachusetts and Abby Wood, a law professor at the University of Southern California.

The campaign was only launched on June 18 and has already managed to raise $7,692.

Not only does it ask people to donate money to those affected it also encourages them and their children to write handwritten letter or postcards to those responsible, namely the White House, Department of Justice, Homeland Security and ICE, all of which have their contact information featured on the Facebook page.

Some of the examples of the messages sent have been shared on social media.

Speaking to Mashable, Woods explained their simple but clear goal:

When you tell your kids about it, you can immediately empower them to send postcards to the people in charge of the policy, demanding they change it.

The message is: 'this situation is terrible, but you can talk to the people in charge to ask them to fix it. We should speak up for families like ours that weren't lucky enough to be born here'.

In addition, Karen Ross told Refinery29:

No matter what your political views are, it's difficult not to be affected in some way when you’re hearing about this kind of issue and [about] little kids who are being separated from their families.

It's something that people feel they can understand on a personal level. Immigration issues and the debate on all sides of the aisle can feel a little abstract, but this policy is not.

You see [its impact when you see] a picture of a little kid. Human empathy then challenges people to act.

All money raised will go directly to RAICES, a charity that is working to help reunite families and give them legal assistance.

On average donations have reportedly been $40 but every donation is being matched by up to $250,000 by a number of private donors.

The fundraiser is set to end on June 24 but it will remain open to all those wishing to donate until then and people can still share their postcards online using the appropriate hashtag.

HT Mashable

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