Volunteers raise funds for family of boy who died while staying at Chicago migrant shelter
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Volunteers helping asylum seekers are now banding together to help one family in need.
They are raising funds for the parents of Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, the 5-year-old boy who died while staying at a migrant shelter in Pilsen in December.
The GoFundMe page for the fundraisers had only been up for a couple of days as of Thursday, but it was already getting thousands of dollars in donations. The organizers say the funds will help.
On the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 17, police said Jean Carlos was not feeling well. He was taken from the shelter near Cermak Road and Halsted Street in Pilsen to the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The boy's family is still reeling.
"They're broken, as you can imagine," said Veronica Saldana. "They are taking it day by day as best they can."
Saldana is one of the volunteers now trying to help the Jean Carlos' family - raising funds for them after they came to Chicago seeking asylum and a better life.
"They haven't really been able to mourn in peace, if you will. They've kind of been getting shuttled around to different places," Saldana said. "That was the purpose of the GoFundMe, was to start them on their healing journeys; to give them some sense of peace - and let them mourn in peace in their own permanent home."
The Martinez Rivero family had been in Chicago only five days before Jean Carlos' death. For volunteer Saldana, it could have been prevented.
"We had been trying to get in, and we were denied access for a long time," said Saldana, "and you know, when we were finally able to get in there, we saw how sick everybody was. There were people in quarantine."
The City of Chicago said Jean Carlos did not die of a contagious illness. But his death is raising concerns among volunteers about conditions and overcrowding inside shelters housing migrants bused to Chicago from Texas.
In an interview Thursday with CBS 2's Sabrina Franza, Mayor Brandon Johnson called on the federal government to help.
"Congress has got to act," said Mayor Johnson, "and if they do not act, this is going to continue to cause the type of chaos that the governor of Texas wants to do."
Jean Carlos is survived by his parents and his 2-year-old brother, Isaias. Volunteers told us the family has no plans on moving back to Venezuela.
The volunteers hope the funds they're raising will not only help them get settled, but also allow them to find a job – to move their family forward as best they can.