SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Overnight, a Chula Vista church's community hall turns into a migrant shelter for women and children.
It opened on Monday with the goal of ensuring that migrants are not sleeping at the airport.
Migrant mothers and their children now have a new place to lay their heads three weeks after the migrant welcome center closed its doors.
"We thought about a women's shelter because they are vulnerable. We are even surprised that there are women who made it with their children that made it," said Sharon Swatowski.
The shelter is inside a catholic church in Chula Vista.
Volunteers asked us not to name the church for safety reasons.
We All We Got San Diego volunteers Denise Marquez and Sharon Swatowski came up with the idea after helping migrants who were dropped off at the airport.
"We opened this shelter for women and children because we saw a need for women and children who were sleeping the airports. They had limited resources. They sometimes couldn't get a flight. They sometimes hadn't eaten in a couple of days. They needed basic necessities. They needed blankets," said Marquez.
Inside the shelter, migrants have access to beds, food, and showers Monday through Friday.
It's all donated.
"These are all of the donations. We have kids clothing, women's clothing. This is what they are going to be using to take a shower. We have the shampoo here. They also have toothpaste. This is what we're looking at right now. The blankets that we set up are over here. The pillows are as well," said Marquez.
Marquez and Swatowski said they feel they have a duty to help because they come from immigrant families.
"When we drop people off here. There is a sense of relief. There's just a moment where we are actually able to interact with them as people and start interacting with them and learn their story [and] Humanize their experience," said Marquez.
The group said they need help making it's sustainable.
"We definitely need community help because we can't do this alone and just like how we go back to we all we got. We have to emphasize on that. Here we are. We have only been doing this for three weeks and we have a shelter," said Swatowski.
You can donate here.
