Maryknoll Lay Missioners - Man with mental illness receives human rights support- Maryknoll Lay Missioner fights to save Marcos from human rights abuse and social neglect

Man with mental illness receives human rights support- Maryknoll Lay Missioner fights to save Marcos from human rights abuse and social neglect

You, as an MKLM donor, have advocated for Marcos’s human rights, protecting him from physical abuse and illegal detainment. Without your support, Jim, pictured right, could not have been present to stop the abuse of a corrupt police force. Will you continue to join Maryknoll Lay Missioners in the fight for human rights?

Jim Halberg Weaver and his wife Karen serve as MKLM missioners, while raising their young children, in Juarez.

Jim’s ministry is with the Paso del Norte Human Rights Center team, a group that actively advocates for the rights of Marcos and others like him.

Marcos lives meagerly, in a single room with a dirt floor, with indoor fire for cooking, and without running water or toilet facilities. To obtain food, Marcos walks the streets each day searching for odd jobs such as sweeping or car washing. He also collects and sells cans for recycling. Jim and Karen often employ Marcos when his efforts elsewhere have him coming up short. They had become accustomed to seeing him regularly.

One day, Marcos stopped coming around. Jim and Karen became worried, knowing that some community members – in their lack of understanding of mental illness – did not always treat Marco well.

Jim’s courses on human rights reach even the youngest members of the community. Through the generosity of MKLM donors, Jim is able to stop the silence that allows human rights abuses to continue. Because of Jim’s work, the children of Juarez are learning about human rights abuses, and how to use their voices to end injustice. Will you help to empower them?

After a few days, Marcos reappeared at Jim and Karen’s. He confided in Jim, timidly explaining how police had detained, physically abused, and interrogated him in search of information on drug traffickers. Jim helped Marcos understand that the police’s actions were illegal and that he, Marcos, had a right to file a complaint.

Like most of the abuse victims that Jim encounters in Juarez, Marcos was too afraid of retaliation to denounce the abuse.

A few weeks passed. Marcos had just finished sweeping in front of Jim and Karen's house when, suddenly, and without cause, police arrived and ordered Marcos in the back of their pickup truck.

This time, and because of the generosity of MKLM donors, Jim was there!

Jim spoke out on Marcos’s behalf, demanding to know why he was detained. Although the police drove off with him, this time, and because of Jim’s relentlessness, Marcos was released unharmed later that day. Before his release, Marcos was forced to wash seven police vehicles.

The Paso del Norte Human Rights Center team.

Through his work with the Paso del Norte Human Rights Center, Jim continues to serve as a defender of human rights and role model in the community. Since Jim joined three years ago, the Center’s core team has grown: there are now five staff members and fifteen volunteers.

Jim teaches courses on human rights to children and adult community members. To create a grassroots movement of human rights defenders, workshops are combined with community organizing.

“I have seen that more people who interact regularly with Marcos are encouraged to offer help and care instead of ridicule,” says Jim. “I helped reduce his abuse by the police. And now community members are learning that they can do the same for Marcos and for themselves.”

• Please consider contributing to MKLM, the organization that keeps Jim iin mission. All contributions are tax deductible. Donate to help support MKLM missioners around the world.

• To learn more about Jim and his ministry, click here .