Theme: Emergency Relief

The clock reads 3:55 am. Nine-year-old Daniel* swings his legs over the side of the bed, quickly dresses, grabs a cart and some bags, and heads towards the lake. He races the Venezuelan sun, rising just over the horizon. Along Lake Maracaibo’s brackish water’s edge, he scrounges for pieces of…

The clock reads 3:55 am. Nine-year-old Daniel* swings his legs over the side of the bed, quickly dresses, grabs a cart and some bags, and heads towards the lake. He races the Venezuelan sun, rising just over the horizon. Along Lake Maracaibo’s brackish water’s edge, he scrounges for pieces of…

“I notice that you purchase and give the hygiene products with love, and when someone gives things with love, they will receive much,” Alma said, opening her hygiene kit bag. Alma, whose name means soul in English, has deep experience in the transformative power of love. Back home in Honduras,…

Martin connects the camera to the trinocular microscope so his client can see the water damage inside his mobile phone. No amount of rice in a bowl will fix that. When a phone takes a dive in this Venezuelan neighborhood, folks know where to go. Martin has been repairing phones…

Our migrant friends make homemade tamales with farm-grown chipilin. Photo by Rafael Rodriguez for Preemptive Love. In a shelter’s kitchen in the border city of Tapachula, spurts of laughter rival the clang of pots crowding the stovetop. Mary and Karla mix the chipilin leaves into the corn masa, cook the…

The year was 1993. The two gray-haired women standing in front of me were petite, their shoulders rounded, and their posture slightly stooped. One of them leaned on a cane. With my youthful, 6-foot frame, I had no trouble peering over their shoulders to see the artifacts they were looking…

The view from the La Silla settlement in the Capital District of Venezuela. Photo by Albern Mendoza for Preemptive Love. Across the urban landscape, an invisible line separates the formal city from the homegrown settlements scaling the Venezuelan mountainside. In these Capital District settlements, community ties are strong. People rely…

Sunlight dapples the green leaves, washing them a translucent yellow-gold. Looking around Talal’s plant nursery, it’s hard to believe that a few short years ago, this plot of land in Mosul’s Old City was a barren dump full of war debris. People often know what they need. They need just…

Christmas lunch at school. Photo by Jonathan Lanza for Preemptive Love. You know how hard it is to concentrate when you’re hungry. Your stomach growls. Your head aches. Your mind blanks. All you can think about is food! Food! Food! In Venezuela, where over 75% of people live in extreme…

Smiles at a shelter during our food distribution in Juarez. Photo by Haniel Lopez for Preemptive Love. Yesterday, the US and Canada announced changes to the immigration policy at their shared border. If you’re confused about what this means, read on. The 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), signed by…