A nonprofit organization is using teddy bears to help migrant children who were separated from their parents at immigration facilities.
Caring for Children Worldwide is working with trauma intervention teams to offer support to kids who the organization says "have been emotionally brutalized by cruel and inhumane separation from their parents and confinement in border detention cages without necessary supplies or attention to their needs."
Amid uproar over child separation last year, former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the actions of President Donald Trump's administration, with regard to migrant families. During a speech to the National Sheriff's Association, she said kids were being properly cared for -- receiving food, medical attention and even education.
"We have to do our job. We will not apologize for doing our job," Nielsen said at the time. "This administration has a simple message: if you cross the border illegally, we will prosecute you."
Around the same time, President Trump signed an executive order that is supposed to keep families together when possible, although some separations have continued.
Thousands of teddy bears will soon be sent to the border to comfort children recently released by ICE, Caring for Children Worldwide wrote in a news release. Many teddy bears already have been delivered to centers serving migrants released from detention. Later this month, the next shipment will leave the San Francisco area bound for sites near the border.
Citing two child psychiatrists, the organization described the teddy bears as "more than" toys.
"Rather, a teddy bear is an emergency emotional medicine intervention known to reduce anxiety and the symptoms of anxiety, such as bed-wetting and night terrors," the nonprofit's news release explained. "The teddy bear becomes a special friend to have and hold when a child is sad, lonely or afraid."
Caring for Children Worldwide has a website that includes information about its mission and trauma intervention efforts.
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