Western Mass Asylum Support Network Fundraiser

[video: our friend & recently arrived neighbor, channeling Mercedes Sosa, while waiting in Tijuana to enter the country. Detained for three months, he is now pursuing his asylum claim in the US.]

Our mission at the Western Massachusetts Asylum Support Network is to offer a welcoming place to land and a network of broad-based accompaniment support to help asylum-seekers operate from a place of increased safety and well-being while navigating their asylum processes.  We are a completely volunteer-run organization, so all of your donation goes directly to supporting asylum seekers.

There are currently 30 people negotiating active asylum cases who are affiliated with our network, living with local friends and sponsors who have agreed to house and support them. Before arriving here, many asylum seekers have spent months in immigration detention - despite having committed no crime - before making it out to resettle in Massachusetts. 

Your money helps us: support people in detention, get people here, and help with the various costs of building a new life in a faraway place. Among other things: ramen noodles from commissary (food in detention is bad), phone calls, legal fees, payments to lawyers, plane tickets to arrive here after detention, medical check-ups, cell-phones, jackets, rental subsidies as people begin to live on their own  and so on, and so forth.  

Here's our website; here's some press on our work.

The Western Massachusetts Asylum Support Network is a fiscally sponsored project of the Peace Development Fund.  All donations are tax deductible. The Peace Development Funds handle the books and legal obligations, we focus on asylum support. We are a 100% volunteer run effort, so all of your donations go directly to supporting asylum seekers. 

There's many more ways to pitch in - find out how to get involved here!