RISE UP & READ

...we are increasingly meeting children whose families have been deported from the United States.

Children in migrant encampments and shelters across Mexico are facing profound barriers to one of their most basic rights: education. International law guarantees that every child has the right to primary and secondary schooling, free from discrimination. Yet the reality is starkly different for displaced children. Many arrive in Mexico after fleeing violence or poverty in their home countries. Once there, they often find themselves shut out again—trapped by restrictive laws,

Migrant Encampment - Mexico City More and more children are arriving in Mexico alone—without the loved ones they began their migration journey with. In just four years, the number of unaccompanied minors entering Mexico has nearly doubled, soaring from 69,500 in 2019 to over 137,000 in 2023. A recent study released in May 2025 by Plan International and Save the Children paints a sobering picture: 155 children between the ages of 7 and 16 were interviewed across Ciudad Juárez,

Rise Up and Read has found a great solution for flexible seating to be used within the pop-up libraries by building chairs out of reclaimed tires. 45% of the 250 million tires generated annually end up in landfills. By using reclaimed tires to create colorful, movable seating we not only support shared reading and attachment but reduced landfill.  The simple design includes bolting together painted tires with the addition of a cut out seat. This furniture can be easily moved

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/migration-americas-all-we-are-looking-better-life

We could never do this alone! Fortunately, Rise Up & Read has found wonderful partners to support our mission in Mexico City, with the graduate students in public policy at CIDE (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas) . Along the way, we are blessed to find additional volunteers willing and able to support our work. Hear them speak about their experience at the pop-up Library this winter in Mexico City.

Rise Up and Read hosted a pop up library to support literacy and attachment for Haitian migrants in tent cities in Mexico City. Hundreds of families are camped in the Juarez district in CDMX on their migration journey from Haiti. They have little in the way of services or support. Rise Up and Read, in partnership with Public Policy students at CIDE (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas) in Mexico City conducted a field assessment in Feb 2024 to better understand the

Graduate students in speech pathology,  Melissa and Daniela, share their service learning project - and provide an excellent explanation for the linkage between literacy and healthy emotional development.

Incredibly exciting! This tractor is the first step in making our dream of a safe space for children and their families to access books and read together.

Meet the incredibly inspring founders of Solidarity Engineering - Erin Hughes, Christa Cook, and Chloe Rastatter. They met at the...