DELIVERY FOR ORPHANS WRAPPED IN RED TAPE : `WITHOUT THE RIGHT PAPERS, NOBODY CROSSES THE BORDER,' INCLUDING DISMAYED MINISTRY.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
'Twas a few days before Christmas and Santa's truck was loaded up with gifts and ready to roll from the church parking lot in Arleta to the small orphanage ORPHANAGE, Eng. law. By the custom of London, when a freeman of that city dies, his estate is divided into three parts, as follows: one third part to the widow; another, to the children advanced by him in his lifetime, which is called the orphanage; and the other third part may be by him 180 miles south of Tijuana - loaded up with presents from American and Canadian kids to poor Mexican kids. Now all old St. Nick had to do was find a Mexican or American bureaucrat with enough clout to get him the right papers to cross the border so he could make Christmas Day special for a lot of kids with very little to their name. Sorry, Santa - call back after the first of the year, the answering machines in the bureaucrat's offices sang. Oh, and have yourself a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. ``When we finally do get a live voice on the phone, all they tell us is they'll see what they can do and get back to us,'' a frustrated frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: Santa's helper was saying Monday. ``So far, nobody's gotten back to us.'' Her name is Charla Pereau, and along with her husband, Charles, a retired L.A. city fire inspector, she's made not only Christmas, but life in general, special for thousands of poor, homeless Mexican kids over the years. In 1966, with $15,000 in contributions from friends and her church congregation, the Pereaus opened an orphanage in a few old abandoned buildings in the small city of Vincente Guerrero (178 miles south of the San Diego/Tijuana border) that had once housed a gambling casino and brothel in the 1930s. This is where their ministry - the Foundation For His Ministry - would care for the homeless Tijuana children they found eating out of garbage garbage: see solid waste. cans and sleeping in back alleys - where they would teach thousands of them to read and write. Every year since then, a truck like this one - now sitting behind the Osborne Neighborhood Church, where the ministry has its warehouse - makes its annual Christmas trip across the border to deliver presents to the orphanage. Also in the truck, which has the handprints of the kids painted on the outside, are blankets and supplies for the village's poor field workers. In all those years, this is the first time that Santa ever got wrapped up in red tape at the border. So much for NAFTA NAFTA in full North American Free Trade Agreement Trade pact signed by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico in 1992, which took effect in 1994. Inspired by the success of the European Community in reducing trade barriers among its members, NAFTA created the world's . ``We've always worked with a few nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. agencies in Mexico which gave us letters we'd present at the border so the goods enter Mexico duty free because it's all donated do·nate v. do·nat·ed, do·nat·ing, do·nates v.tr. To present as a gift to a fund or cause; contribute. v.intr. To make a contribution to a fund or cause. merchandise going from one nonprofit agency to another,'' Charla says. ``This year when the administrator of our ministry went to Ensenada to get the papers, he was told there was no one there to sign them, and that he should return the next day. ``Our village is 120 miles north of Ensenada. For three days he made the trips back and forth, and still there was no one to sign the papers. Finally, he was told that nothing would be signed until after the beginning of the year. ``So here sits our truck loaded with gifts for more than 80 children, plus all the coats and blankets we have for the people working in the fields so we can have cheap tomatoes in California.'' Charla has called U.S. officials in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , and the Mexican consulate Consulate, 1799–1804, in French history, form of government established after the coup of 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9–10, 1799), which ended the Directory. in Washington, D.C., and gotten basically the ``We'll look into it and get back to you'' line. As of late Monday afternoon, nobody with any clout on either side of the border had gotten back to them. I called the nonprofit agency in Ensenada which always has provided the ministry with the needed border papers, but there was no answer. ``Without the right papers, nobody crosses the Otay Mesa border (the spot where all trucks are checked going into Mexico from Tijuana),'' Charla said. ``We've got more than 80 kids waiting for this truck, and there will be no truck - no Christmas line from the U.S. into Mexico for them because Santa's wrapped up in red tape at the border.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Ministry members, from left, Charles Pereau, Frank Liberto, Charla Pereau, Larraine Barter barter: see exchange. barter Direct exchange of goods or services without the use of money or any other intervening medium of exchange. Barter is conducted either according to established rates of exchange or by bargaining. , Lynn Davenport Davenport, city (1990 pop. 95,333), seat of Scott co., E central Iowa, on the Mississippi River; inc. 1836. Bridges connect it with the Illinois cities of Rock Island and Moline; the three communities and neighboring Bettendorf, Iowa, are known as the Quad Cities. and Win Olson, have their trucks loaded. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News |
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