RILA Stories
Carlos’ story
What do you do when your child is in danger? Carlos’s town was overrun by the MS-13 gang and the drugs they trafficked. When his 14-year-old son, Nico, was followed home from school by a gang member and then assaulted for running away, Carlos didn’t know what to do: “Now that Nico had resisted MS-13, he was in imminent danger.”
Manuel’s Story
Upon graduating from high school, Manuel was pressured to join a gang, which he had grown up seeing extort money from public bus passengers. “At first I didn’t understand why they wanted me since I had never done anything bad. I had only focused on studying and going to church…I think they wanted to recruit me because I was trying to forge a future for myself.”