Part 1: Educating & Supporting Displaced Asylum Seekers w/ Felicia Rangel-Samponaro
Explicit content warning
03/30/21 • 42 min
This episode is part one of two amazing episodes we’ve got with The Sidewalk School. In this episode, Weeze has a conversation with Director Felicia, about how The Sidewalk School was founded in response to the need for education and support for those facing displacement in the Matamoros Tent City, a refugee camp. They discuss the realities of asylum seekers and how they’ve been mistreated due to Trump’s immigration policy changes, Biden’s backwards approach to “fixing” them, and what we can do to support these folks who legally did exactly what they were supposed to, but have been displaced for years...years!
ABOUT WEEZE
Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She’s known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.
ABOUT FELICIA
Felicia Rangel-Samponaro holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Houston. Prior to moving to Brownsville, TX, she was a certified teacher in the Houston area. Felicia is married and is a proud mother to her 9-year-old son. Despite being a non-Spanish speaker amongst a fully Spanish-speaking staff, she has been a volunteer in the Matamoros Tent City with the Asylum Seekers since late 2018. Through her work with the Sidewalk School, she believes that anything is possible, especially creating and running schools in Mexico.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT
- The education and resources Sidewalk School provides to asylum seekers in the Matamoras encampment.
- How the Matamoras encampment grew to a population of 5000 displaced people!
- How Trump silently legalized the separation and kidnapping of children in internment camps.
- How children were sent to kid jails from a matter of weeks to years, deported back to their native countries, and placed in foster care.
- The backwards way Pres. Robinette has decided to “fix” the Migrant Protection Program.
CALL TO ACTION
- Donate to Sidewalk School: https://www.sidewalkschool.org
- Purchase Mel’s artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SidewalkSchool
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze
The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy
FOLLOW FELICIA TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.sidewalkschool.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidewalkschool
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesidewalkschool/
This episode is part one of two amazing episodes we’ve got with The Sidewalk School. In this episode, Weeze has a conversation with Director Felicia, about how The Sidewalk School was founded in response to the need for education and support for those facing displacement in the Matamoros Tent City, a refugee camp. They discuss the realities of asylum seekers and how they’ve been mistreated due to Trump’s immigration policy changes, Biden’s backwards approach to “fixing” them, and what we can do to support these folks who legally did exactly what they were supposed to, but have been displaced for years...years!
ABOUT WEEZE
Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She’s known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.
ABOUT FELICIA
Felicia Rangel-Samponaro holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Houston. Prior to moving to Brownsville, TX, she was a certified teacher in the Houston area. Felicia is married and is a proud mother to her 9-year-old son. Despite being a non-Spanish speaker amongst a fully Spanish-speaking staff, she has been a volunteer in the Matamoros Tent City with the Asylum Seekers since late 2018. Through her work with the Sidewalk School, she believes that anything is possible, especially creating and running schools in Mexico.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT
- The education and resources Sidewalk School provides to asylum seekers in the Matamoras encampment.
- How the Matamoras encampment grew to a population of 5000 displaced people!
- How Trump silently legalized the separation and kidnapping of children in internment camps.
- How children were sent to kid jails from a matter of weeks to years, deported back to their native countries, and placed in foster care.
- The backwards way Pres. Robinette has decided to “fix” the Migrant Protection Program.
CALL TO ACTION
- Donate to Sidewalk School: https://www.sidewalkschool.org
- Purchase Mel’s artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SidewalkSchool
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze
The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy
FOLLOW FELICIA TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.sidewalkschool.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidewalkschool
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesidewalkschool/
Previous Episode
Transparency & Equity in the Publishing Industry W/ Rebekah “Bex” Borucki
In this episode Bex talks about leaving Hay House, the largest mind body, spirit publisher in the world, due their choice to engage in racist and dangerous practices. She shares about the support (and lack thereof) she received after leaving, gives us a breakdown of how the publishing industry works and what authors experience, and she talks about her new equitable and transparent publishing company, Wheat Penny Press.
ABOUT WEEZE
Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She’s known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.
ABOUT BEX
Rebekah “Bex” Borucki, founder of BexLife® and the Blissed In® wellness movement, is a mother of five, a mentor for creative healers, and an author and publisher of books for big and little readers. As a mentor to creative healers, Rebekah guides her clients to create books and brand presences from the ground up and the heart outward. Her clients have gone on to receive publishing contracts with major houses like Simon & Schuster and Hay House. Rebekah is published by Hay House, the Quarto Publishing Group, and her own imprint, Wheat Penny Press. And most recently, Rebekah founded the WPP Little Readers Big Change Initiative, a 501(c)(3) registered public charity that provides free books, mental wellness tools, author visits, and writing workshops for students in grades PreK-8, public libraries, and community organizations.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT
- Bex’s journey in leaving Hay House Publishing due to their racist and dangerous practices and their support of white supremacists & conspiracy theorists.
- How the publishing industry preys on authors and keeps them from accessing what they deserve for their work.
- How Bex’s belief in what publishing can and should look like birthed her publishing company, Wheat Penny Press.
- Leaning in to what doesn’t exist yet and creating it.
- Honoring your journey and being honest about the fact that we all participate in the system in various ways, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. But we’re always learning and changing.
- What’s possible when we practice expanding our horizons and how we can facilitate change.
CALL TO ACTION
- Rebekah is seeking support for her organization, the Little Readers Big Change Initiative, and her campaigns that support Black and brown authors and bookshops here: https://www.wheatpennypress.com/shop/support
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Own Voices Movement
FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze
The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy
FOLLOW BEX TO STAY ENGAGED
Website:BexLife.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bexlife
Website: WheatPennyPress.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheatpennypress
Next Episode
Part 2: What It’s Like to Seek Asylum w/ Ranier “Ray” Rodriguez
In this second part of the episode, Weeze has a conversation with Sidewalk School’s Academic Director and Teacher, Rainier Rodriguez. Sidewalk School is an organization that educates and supports those facing displacement in the Matamoros Tent City, a refugee camp. Having been granted asylum in January 2020, Ray takes us through the experience of what it was like to go through the process, detailing what people are forced to endure.
ABOUT WEEZE
Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She’s known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.
ABOUT RAY
Rainer “Ray” Rodriguez is a Cuban English professor/ Interpreter who worked as a professor at the technical university in Havana. After suffering from political persecution and discrimination with no other option, he left to Panama and crossed 2500 miles through Central America to reach the Southern border of the USA. In Matamoros, he worked with many organizations helping asylum seekers and worked at the Sidewalk School since the beginning teaching and being the Academic Director of the school. He was granted asylum in January of 2020 when he moved to Washington DC and continues working with the school.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT
- Ray’s journey as an asylum seeker from Cuba and what the process looked like.
- Living in Mexico, taking daily trips to the border to eat and wait to be called, court dates, being in unsafe environments, the lack of infrastructure around being able to work and earn money, and more.
- How going to the border as an asylum seeker to get food led him to meeting Felicia.
- How Ray was able to be a translator between the American organizations and Central American asylum seekers, so folks could get what they needed.
- Dismantling the narrative of asylum seekers being uneducated, criminals, and liars who only want to come to America to steal jobs.
- How the process is designed to create hurdles for people to actually win any asylum case.
- The tone of aggression, disbelief, trauma, and lack of resources people have when going to court.
CALL TO ACTION
- Educate yourself about what is happening with asylum seekers before you just donate. Investigate, see who’s behind the organizations, and then support.
- If you have the education that can help others, maybe you can speak another language, volunteer your time.
- Donate to Sidewalk School: https://www.sidewalkschool.org
- Purchase Mel’s artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SidewalkSchool
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze
The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy
FOLLOW RAY TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.sidewalkschool.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidewalkschool
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/r4ystackhouse
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesidewalkschool/
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/according-to-weeze-180518/part-1-educating-and-supporting-displaced-asylum-seekers-w-felicia-ran-15802170"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to part 1: educating & supporting displaced asylum seekers w/ felicia rangel-samponaro on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy