At 2:30 am on March 27, 2020 Widlene's feet finally touched Canadian Soil.
We started a movement.. All of us.
We became the resistance and we brought change... All of us.
In the next little bit, you will all come to realize that we have indeed made history... All of us!
Who is Widlene?
When the #BringWidleneHome campagin started, Widlene was an energetic and impressionable child who loved dancing, soccer and Justin Bieber. Over the past two years, she has evolved into a strong and driven young woman.
She has grown from dreaming of her first time seeing snow and tasting a fresh Tim Horton's doughnut to focusing her ambitions on helping others. Widlene wants to transform policies to protect people from going through what she has. The first step is a safe environment and a sense of belonging. So, who is Widlene?
Widlene is Change!
Stateless
Statelessness is described in international law as a person who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law." A stateless person has no access to even the most basic human rights. Things like education, health care and legal employment are taken for granted by most people, but are unavailable to stateless individuals. In 2015, Dominican Republic changed a law which erased birthright citizenship. Dominican authorities were ordered to begin massive deportation sweeps that primarily targeted people of Haitian descent, even those born and raised in Dominican Republic. With the staggering numbers of people being dropped off at the DR-Haiti border, Haiti's only economically feasible response was to deny patriating those left at its "door." Essentially, with one stroke of the pen, roughly 750,000 people were rendered stateless. Widlene is one of those people.
Stateless does not equal Silence
Thank you for visiting the official support site for the #BringWidleneHome campaign. As you look around, you will find opportunities to support our efforts as well as lots of archived media coverage.
What started out as a campaign to get one girl to safety is now a national movement. Widlene has suffered injustice at the hands of the governments of Dominican Republic, Haiti and Canada, and has become a beacon of hope for Stateless people everywhere. After being in the care of her Canadian parents since 2009, she has slipped through the cracks of a failed immigration system and has continually been denied entrance into Canada.
Please join us and help Bring Widlene Home!
Since June 2017, you have likely seen thousands of posts in support of bringing Widlene to Canada. No matter how much our words have angered and saddened you, please know that what you are seeing and hearing is still only the surface.
Government lies and corruption are not the compelling core of this story.
Behind all of the legislation, bureaucracy and government minutia, lies a family. A collection of real people trying to live real lives. Although some of the updates have played out like a TV drama, those involved still have to wake up to a living hell the next morning.
Coming Soon
That is the real “Story behind the Story.”
How does a young child emotionally deal with continued rejection from multiple countries?
How does a step mom, and new mom, handle the turmoil of a family that is never all in one place?
How does a father handle the responsibility of protecting his family and the guilt of knowing that he is simply falling short?
Pull back the curtain and see the real collateral damage of elected leaders who have lost touch with the people that they have been elected to serve.
