Mexico's First Lady Visits Covenant House New York

Covenant House
Friday, 9 November 2001

The First Lady of Mexico visited the flagship program of Covenant House in New York on Saturday, November 10th, 2001 to learn about the plight of street children and homeless youth in the United States.

Following a brief presentation by Covenant House staff, Mrs. Fox was introduced to Brendan Jenkins and Lucia Ramirez, two Covenant House residents who told Mrs. Fox their stories. Brendan Jenkins, a native of the Bronx, was at Covenant House for a month following a series of disagreements with his mother. He has just moved into a transitional living program and is working for an insurance company, a job Covenant House helped him obtain.

Lucia Ramirez and her daughter Tania had just arrived at Covenant House. She is a native of Mexico who came to the United States with her boyfriend who later became abusive toward her and her baby. Lucia wants to return to Mexico and care for her mother who has diabetes. Mr. Salvador Beltran, the Consul General of Mexico who accompanied Mrs. Fox on her visit to Covenant House, agreed to help Lucia return home.

Marta Sahagun de Fox and her husband, President Vicente Fox, have for many years been supporters of a series of street children projects in their home State of Guanajuato, Mexico. Mrs Sahagun de Fox has recently formed her own organization "Vamos Mexico" (Let's Go Mexico!) to fund programs for homeless and disadvantaged children in Mexico.

Mrs. Fox's daughter, Ana Cristina, visited Covenant House's program for street children in Mexico City last week. For several hours she visited the more than 100 children in residential care. The Latin American programs of Covenant House, known in Spanish as "Casa Alianza", attend more than 9,000 homeless children each year in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

President Fox was in New York for the United Nation's General Assembly.

Covenant House is the largest privately-funded childcare agency in the United States providing shelter and service to homeless and runaway youth. It was incorporated in New York City in 1972 and has since expanded in the United States to New Orleans, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Los Angeles, Oakland, Anchorage, Newark, Atlantic City, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Atlanta. In Latin America, besides Guatemala, it has established programs in Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and in Canada, Toronto and Vancouver.

In addition to food, shelter, clothing and crisis care, Covenant House provides a variety of services to homeless youth including advocacy, health care, education, vocational preparation, drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, legal services, recreation, mother/child programs, transitional living programs, street outreach and aftercare.

Covenant House provided residential and non-residential services to over 61,000 youth last year.

For more information, or to contact Covenant House, see their website at: www.covenanthouse.org