​On International Women's Day March 8, 2022, the Barefoot Acupuncture Movement is raising funds for women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico as they rebuild their acupuncture programs.

This Barefoot Project is women-led, and here you will meet those doing the work of serving migrant and maquila communities in the borderlands.  

"Maria Luisa, originally from the state of Oaxaca, arrived with her family eight months ago in Ciudad Juarez.  She has been living at the San Romero shelter, where she first received acupuncture.  Sometimes she is afraid of the needles, but she attends regularly because they help her with stress and headaches. Her family is one of the thousands of Mexicans who have been displaced by violence from their places of origin, they were threatened with death in a way that I would not wish on anyone. Now they are waiting for the opportunity to cross the border, seek asylum in the US, and find a better future for their children. She is sure that they can no longer return to their town in Southern Mexico."
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This year, our Barefoot Acupuncture Movement is choosing to support disaster relief community health workers on the US/Mexico Border.  We do this out of solidarity with refugees who are homeless in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.  Below is how you can make a donation. And here's a few links to learn more about our project in Juarez, Mexico.

With your support, our Barefoot Schools in Latin America will keep walking with local community health workers, and putting tools like acupuncture into their hands to aid with stress, trauma and community recovery.

It costs 50 Cents for supplies for one treatment. Tell us how many other therapies that can beat that.  This means your dollars go a long long ways towards helping another woman and her children fleeing north to the border for a safer life. 

$20  = ​Supplies for 40 treatments for displaced person

​$80  = Supplies for 160 treatments for displaced persons

$100 = ​Supplies for 200 treatments in under-resourced areas

$500 = Sponsor a woman volunteer to apprentice in our Barefoot Schools as a community health worker
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​$5,000 = Train an entire village in Central America to teach them how to integrate acupuncture into their local health system.

Two weeks later we sit again. But this time we were 211 kilometers north of Guatemala City in the village of Coban, where our Barefoot School is training a cooperative of Mayan community health workers how to offer this same care: community acupuncture. One of our students, Ophelia, shared with us that her husband was eager to migrate as well.  She begged and convinced him to not leave. Then she shared her vision with our group:  to make her village a better place, so that her tribe does not have to leave their homes. 

The Barefoot Acupuncture Movement's work with displaced groups has drawn us into their stories, into solidarity with their self-affirmation of dignity and their universal right to safety and healthcare.
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Over the past few years, tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, from similar villages and communities, have arrived at the border. In November of 2018 our Barefoot volunteers suddenly found hundreds of immigrants sleeping on the Paso Del Norte ("Passage North") Bridge connecting Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to El Paso, Texas. 
 
They are fleeing kidnapping, gang violence, trafficking, and poverty.  These factors drive many to migrate from Central America, where 30% of the population lack access to healthcare. 
 
2021 has witnessed a sharp increase of refugees and immigrants, half of whom are children. They are homeless in Mexico, living in shelters, sanctuaries in churches, and ‘tent cities.’  Forced migration patterns strain local health systems.  In response, the Barefoot Acupuncture Movement partners with local community health workers who are a lifeline to those in need.

Your donations go directly to support our partners in these ways:

On the US-Mexico border
Volunteer-run Barefoot Clinics operate in churches and shelters that house them on the US/Mexico border.  In 2022, we will train dozens of new workers operating in over 20 refugee shelters.
 
(photo: Barefoot Health Promoters in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico offer community acupuncture (acudetox) at Saint Romero of America Migrant Care Center, 2021)
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In Central America
Our 100% scholarship-based Barefoot Schools train volunteers from the home communities of migrants, to strengthen local healthcare systems in Central America.  We put simple, safe, and cost-effective tools in the hands of community farmers, health promoters, and indigenous healers, so they can offer vital support in stress management and mental wellness. 


Impact of your contribution

With your support, healthcare will become more accessible to both migrants and the communities that they come from. 

$20  = ​Supplies for 40 treatments for displaced persons
​$80  = Supplies for 160 treatments for displaced persons

$100 = ​Supplies for 200 treatments in under-resourced areas

$500 = Sponsor a Community Health Worker to apprentice in our Barefoot Schools

​$5,000 = Train an entire village in Central America to teach them how to integrate acupuncture into their local health system

Thanks to Blue Poppy Press for sponsoring the Barefoot Acupuncture Movement as a beneficiary of their new Community Health Initiative- CHI, bringing energy to local nonprofits.


To become a corporate or organizational sponsor, send us an email: crossroadsacu@gmail.com

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Ryan Bemis, Doctor Oriental Medicine
575-312-6569; ryanbemis@barefootacupuncturemovement.com

RISE program brings ear acupuncture as a community support to southern New Mexico

This summer, New Mexico jails in Truth or Consequences and Carrizozo are launching a group-based ear acupuncture program known as acudetox, through the RISE (Reach, Intervene, Support and Engage) program.

This form of care is offered as an adjunctive support for stress, addictions care and prevention, and has been well-integrated into correctional settings, drug courts, jails, hospitals and detox/recovery programs. RISE will be working within jails in Carrizozo and Truth or Consequences and in collaboration with local drug courts and  Indian Health Services serving RISE clients.

For more information: RISE program
Martin Rickler, MA, PhD, LMFT
California License LMFT 94710
Senior Vice President
Correctional Solutions Group, LLC
www.CSGprograms.com
Message Line: (818) 620-7114

For more information:  Acudetox
To learn about this technique, the acudetox training program or to learn about other drop-in clinics in southern New Mexico, El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, visit www.crossroadsacupuncture.com/earacuborderlands

We are featured in the summer issue of Culturs Magazine!
( Culturs.guru @cultursmag )

"To give something that can be passed on is an act of love, to teach communities to fish rather than giving out fish dinners is a demonstration of solidarity."
- Rhonda Coleman @blacupuncturist

In this article, you'll meet some of the amazing acupuncture providers and teachers that are at the heart of our Barefoot Acupuncture Movement.

El Paso’s local National Public Radio station featured Crossroads’ Barefoot Acupuncture Movement’s disaster response efforts in August, 2019, at the first responder site outside of the Wal Mart where the shooting occurred.

In their story airing on KRWG Friday August 16th entitled El Paso Community, Volunteers Come Together To Mourn And Try To Heal, Reporter Anthony Moreno interviewed people receiving care at our Barefoot Clinics, with treatments like NADA ear acupuncture (Acudetox) groups.

By Belen Chacon and Molly Molloy

Crossroads Acupuncture (DBA Barefoot Acupuncture Movement) celebrated its newly renovated clinic space in Oct 2018 inside Families and Youth, INC with an Open House, a ribbon-cutting ceremony provided by the Green Chamber of Commerce of Las Cruces, and a book reading and book signing by Joshua Wheeler.  Refreshments will also be provided.