Girl Scout Troop 6000: Empowering Immigrant Girls in NYC

“A round of applause for the Girl Scouts.”

This group of girl scouts had their beginnings exactly one year ago at the Row Hotel in Midtown.

“This experience has been very fun because in my country you don’t see this about girl scouts,” said Laura Valentina. “For me it was very exciting to enter this program because they sold cookies, but when I entered I realized that it was not just about selling cookies but about the things that women can do when we grow up, we can be employed to do more things “.

Girl Scout Troop 6000 started with seven members. A year later there are almost 200 girls between 5 and 17 years old who are part of this group. All daughters of asylum-seeking immigrants who live in the hotel, transformed into a humanitarian center.

“It is a pride for us to have this program together with the Girl Scouts and to support migrants, families, girls who have recently arrived in the city and the country who have already been through too much and here they are given a space to live together, make friends,” said Manuel Castro, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for Immigration Affairs.

The troop is divided by age into three groups. They meet every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to participate in different activities and also visit sites of cultural interest in the city.

“I started about two months after coming and the truth is I loved it too much, I felt too embraced because I had companions who were from my same country and I felt happy to be here,” said another of the participants.

Commissioner Castro reminded the Girl Scouts that he also had to cross the border with his family as a child and that he knows firsthand the challenges they face in a new country.

“I have a lot of hope for them that one day they can be the next commissioner of immigrant affairs, doctors, reporters and we are very proud of them and above all very grateful to the Girl Scouts,” Castro added.

Castro says it is extremely important to have close collaboration with organizations like the Girls Scouts that stay in touch with families after they leave the shelters.

Many of these families will have to leave Hotel Row due to the new municipal policy that limits the stay of asylum-seeking families in shelters to 60 days.

Even so, Troop 6000 will continue to carry out activities here with new members and will stay connected with all the girls who have been part of this group through a virtual troop.

“In addition to giving us new values, they are helping us to achieve our objectives in good ways and never making bad decisions, always on the right path,” Valentina added.

Valentina.

2024-01-05 22:23:00
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