Dear friend of IRTF:
For more than four decades, IRTF has welcomed dozens of interns who have helped carry forward our mission of promoting peace, human rights and systemic transformation across the Americas. Each year, our interns enter the living legacy of IRTF: never-ending advocacy, organizing, and accompaniment. Their experiences, like those of Lucia and Maddie, remind us of the importance of this work and of forming the next generation of justice seekers.
Madeline Nock, Magnificat ‘23 and Tufts ‘27
When I first started as a summer intern at the InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF), I paid attention to only the last five words of its name: Task Force on Central America. I didn’t understand what “InterReligious” really meant. I came across the organization when looking for ways to get involved in fair trade initiatives in Cleveland, and it felt like I hit the jackpot when IRTF appeared in my search, an organization with decades of action toward the goals I shared.
I quickly found out that IRTF is not only an organization, but a community—and the foundational pillar is that “InterReligious” word I had ignored at first. In my first week, I was thrown into a whirlwind of planning for the Interfaith Prayer Service in Support of Migrants and Refugees, hosted at Trinity Cathedral. Over one hundred people across faith communities attended, cultivating the strongest sense of peace and solidarity I have ever had the privilege to be a part of. Hearing and seeing the overlapping values of compassion, strength, and “welcoming of the stranger” from not only Christian but Jewish and Islamic traditions filled me with hope.
I learned throughout this summer that faith-based groups, including many Catholic churches and working groups, make up a foundation of grassroot immigration support and action in Cleveland. IRTF has existed and worked on immigration issues since long before the recent wave of immigration advocacy that has emerged with the Trump Administration’s mass deportation and incarceration of migrants. As a small organization and a tight-knit community, IRTF’s support is direct. This summer, we accompanied migrants to their immigration hearings, speaking with them in a mix of broken English and Spanish, learning their stories and offering them support and companionship. We connected with other community groups to learn how we could best inform local migrant and refugee families through Know Your Rights training. We challenged our own comfort and security by attempting to take on the fear and uncertainty faced by the migrant community.
This is the kind of support system that we are called to participate in. An active, direct, community-oriented system of care that does not allow us to avoid the discomfort brought by difficult social and political issues. We are called to “welcome the stranger,” not from a distance but from an outstretched, welcoming hand of solidarity. This requires active participation in change to the system which creates injustice, and direct support to those who are hurt by it. At the beginning of this summer, I was a stranger to the network of care and activism upheld by faith-based organizations like IRTF. I am eternally grateful to have been welcomed by them with open arms, allowing me to participate in and see immigration justice in action.
Lucia Pineda, Magnificat ‘26
My name is Lucia Pineda, and I am a senior at Magnificat High School. This past May, under the pressure of upcoming college applications, I was complaining to my campus ministers that I had no internships lined up for the summer. In an effort to help me, or maybe just subside my desperate cries, my campus minister pulled up the IRTF webpage and said, “You should intern here.” Enough said, I emailed Brian that afternoon.
Walking up to the office on my first day, I could have never imagined the haven of social justice that was tucked in this unassuming church with heavy metal doors. Upon entering the office, I was immediately greeted by a smiling Brian, posters of martyrs, copious amounts of fair trade coffee, and black and white photos of the interns that came before me. Its walls are a testament to its 45 years of existence and the decades of injustices occurring in Central America, and a reminder that the struggle for justice is always ongoing.
I had expected my summer to be a conglomeration of beach days, late nights with my friends, and sticky ice cream cones. Never did I anticipate the highlight of my weeks to be monitoring immigration court hearings, writing Rapid Response Network letters, and reveling in the culmination of our work in an interreligious prayer service for migrants. IRTF has been an indispensable part of discerning the world I want to live in, the role I will have in that, and the way I hope to go about it. This haven of social justice, activism, and human-centered civic engagement has become the foundation on which I hope to build a lifetime of advocacy and purposeful action.
From left to right: Brian Stefan-Szittai, Madeline Nock, Katerina Steiber, Lucia Pineda
IRTF’s work is able to persevere and continue to shape lives, like those of Lucia’s and Maddie's, primarily through the generosity of individual donors. Almost 90% of our funding comes not from corporate sponsors or government grants with strings attached, but from individual supporters. So in honor of IRTF’s 45 years of solidarity work with the people of Central America and Colombia, please consider a gift of $45 or more. The support of people like you who care deeply about social, economic, and environmental justice allows us to stay true to our mission of peace, justice, human rights, and systemic transformation through nonviolence. We need, appreciate, and thank you for your generosity!
How to donate:
website: IRTFcleveland.org/donate
PayPal: @irtfcleveland
Venmo: @irtfcleveland
Check: IRTF, 3606 Bridge Ave., Cleveland OH 44113
