Kids in Need of Defense

KIND is an international NGO that was founded by actress Angelina Jolie (UNHCR ambassador) and Microsoft Corporation in 2008 (Gamboa, 2014), focuses on the accompaniment of unaccompanied migrant children on the US-Mexico border through the defense and promotion of children’s rights. It provides legal orientation, helps find family members, and documents cases of unaccompanied children throughout Mexico and along the southern and northern borders of Mexico.

Regarding legal accompaniment, KIND has a network of lawyers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border so that children without families can have legal representation at no cost.

Once children are able to establish legal status in the U.S., KIND has a multidisciplinary strategy to help and support them in coping with the trauma of mobility and “KIND’s Social Services team helps KIND’s U.S. clients adjust to a new country, language, home and community, and address the traumas most of them have experienced before coming to the United States and during their journey to the United States.” (KIND, social services).