Karen Slaggert: Suffer the Little Children

By Sally Anne Flecker | Fall 2014

Printer Friendly

The Tapachula prison in southern Mexico is communal—open dormitories where families join incarcerated husbands and fathers if there is nowhere else to go. “These children are in the midst of rapists, killers, prostitutes, drug dealers. Men sell their children as prostitutes to get money for food,” says Karen Slaggert, associate director of the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship.

But it’s not entirely hopeless, thanks to Mission on the Move. Founded by an American couple who go into the prison and convince parents to let them care for their children, the mission has three homes in Tapachula where they raise as many as 60 children. “They have no schools in the prison,” Slaggert says. “These children would have no chance but to follow
in the footsteps of their parents.”

Slaggert has been an enthusiastic volunteer for Mission on the Move since her first trip 10 years ago when she and other women from her South Bend church provided respite for the house parents—cooking, cleaning and spending time with the children. “These are precious children, no different from my kids or yours,” she says.

The cooking and cleaning that she and her team do is grueling—cooking for 60 people on industrial stoves in a kitchen where there’s no AC and temps outside hover around 100 degrees. Oh, and convenience foods aren’t an option. Everything they cook is from scratch. Then there’s the laundry. The huge industrial washing machines are great but laundry lines crisscross the back yard and all the wash is hung out to dry. “We are wimps compared to the workers there,” says Slaggert. “It takes an army of us to replace the two house parents.”

Slaggert and her husband Paul (BBA ‘74), Mendoza’s director of non-degree programs, have three children with Notre Dame degrees thanks to the university’s educational benefit program. Now they’re paying it forward, helping with college tuition for the children of the mission.

“These boys were living in a prison and had no hope,” she says. “Now they are going to make a difference.”

www.missiononthemove.org

Categories

  • Salt and Light10
    Salt & Light 1411
    Salt & Light: Passionate About Human Dignity 1461
    Salt & Light: There's Always Room in the Inn 1462
    Karen Hildebrandt: Quiet Hero 2612
    John Weber: The Importance of Being Turtles 2613
    Mike Mannor: New Hope for Down Syndrome 2614
    Maggie Neenan-Michel: Born to Run 2615
    Kristin Collett-Schmitt: To Honor Mackenzie 2616
    Jamie O'Brien: Cultivating Children 2626
    Karen Slaggert: Suffer the Little Children 2627
    More Salt & Light 2628
    Patti Reinhardt: Survivor's Tale 2629
  • Taking Stock - Personal Essays1
    Everyday Grace: On Stories 1444
  • Class Notes3
    Class Notes 1435
    Future Domers 2641
    In Memoriam 2642
  • Ask More of Business1
    Ask More: Grounds & Hounds 2636
  • Web Exclusive1
    Salt & Light: Passionate About Human Dignity 1461
    Salt & Light: There's Always Room in the Inn 1462
    "Shark Tank" Judge Visits Mendoza 1464
  • In Memoriam1
    In Memoriam 2642
  • Future Domers1
    Future Domers 2641
  • Mendoza News5
    A Meeting of Minds to Help the Poor 1340
    New Faculty Profile: Meet Charlice Hurst 1341
    A Matter of Trust 1352
    College News Briefs 1449
    Faculty News Briefs 2630
  • Mendoza Profiles2
    On and Off the Fence 1355
    A Poignant Journey 1373
  • Alumni Community4
    Class Notes 1435
    The Hessert Brothers: And They're Off 2547
    Kenn Ricci: Like Father, Like Son 2545
    Charles Florance: Inspirational Spirits 2546
  • First Person1
    Back to School 1443