It began with a few elderly neighbors who could not bear to be alone anymore. Today it is a chain of hope for the people the world has left behind.
Where it all began
Forty minutes outside Ciudad Juárez, in the small town of San Agustín, lived about 800 people. Most of them were elderly. For them, distance was not measured in miles, but in loneliness: children who had moved away, visits that stopped coming, and whole days without anyone asking how they were.
There, a small group of grandparents began to meet. They had no money and no plan. They had something more urgent: they did not want to be alone anymore.
They sat together, shared their stories, and little by little, they began to smile again. Those gatherings became the first Senior Circles, places where friendship began to push back against sadness, depression and isolation.
No one knew it yet, but something much bigger was being born in those small meetings.
2017: A home for the forgotten
As Juárez grew, so did a reality few wanted to see: men and women who had worked their whole lives, raised children and held families together were spending their final years abandoned, mistreated or without anyone to care for them.
Some came to us after suffering abuse. Others had no one left to answer for them. Many needed something no medicine can provide: a home, a hand to hold them up, and someone to remind them that their life still matters.
In 2017 we answered that call and legally established the Asilo de Ancianos Desamparados, A.C. (Home for Abandoned Elderly), devoted entirely to protecting and caring for the most vulnerable older adults.
What began as a circle of friends became a refuge. At our busiest, we were caring for more than 150 older adults every month, providing food, shelter, medical care, physical therapy and, above all, love and dignity.
2020: Our hardest test
Then the pandemic came.
Our residents were among the people at greatest risk. Every day they needed more medical care, and every day there were fewer hands to give it. Getting a hospital bed was nearly impossible. Staff and medical services were scarce. Some caregivers, afraid of infection, stopped coming.
Those were days of fear, exhaustion and goodbyes. We suffered losses that still hurt, and our home was left with far fewer residents than before.
But even in the middle of that pain, one thing never broke: we did not abandon those who needed us. And it was right there, in the darkest moment, that we understood our mission had to reach even further.
Punto Zero: the pain no one sees
The pandemic did not only make bodies sick. Lockdowns, isolation and loss left wounds in minds and souls.
That is how we came to see another reality that usually stays invisible: people living with mental illness or psychiatric conditions who receive no care because treatment costs too much or because they have no family to support them.
For them we created Punto Zero, a place that offers free care and support to adults facing these conditions.
No one should be forgotten for carrying an illness that others cannot see or understand.
A chain that could not stop
Over the years, the road led us to other doors. Families on the edges of Juárez with nothing to put on the table. Children growing up without a safe home. People going through winter without a blanket. Adults with nowhere to sleep. Young people who turn 18 and, overnight, are left with no one.
We could not look away. So we legally broadened our mission and took a new name: Cadena de Ayuda para los Más Pobres, A.C., a "chain of help for the poorest."
It was more than a new name. It was the natural answer to a pain that kept growing in front of us. The Home for Abandoned Elderly and Punto Zero became part of this larger organization, together with new programs to protect, feed, care for and create opportunities for those who need it most.
The calling is the same one God placed in our hearts from the very beginning: to serve, to love, and to reach out to those the world has forgotten.
From Juárez, for everyone who comes
We are based in Ciudad Juárez, but people come to our door from all over Mexico.
We have even taken in residents from the United States: mothers and fathers who were left in Mexico by their own children, far from their homes, their language and their people.
Here, we do not ask where people come from. We only ask what they need.
Sharing With The Poorest, Inc.
So that friends and donors in the United States can also be part of this chain, Sharing With The Poorest, Inc. was established as a nonprofit organization recognized by the IRS under section 501(c)(3), based in El Paso, Texas (EIN 61-2341423).
Sharing With The Poorest, Inc. and Cadena de Ayuda para los Más Pobres, A.C. are legally separate organizations that share the same calling. Gifts made through this website are received by Sharing With The Poorest, Inc., and its board of directors decides how they are used to carry out its charitable purposes, including support for programs that serve people in need in Ciudad Juárez.
Our programs
Home for Abandoned Elderly (Asilo de Ancianos Desamparados). Our roots. Protection and complete care for older adults facing abandonment, abuse or a lack of family support: food, shelter, daily assistance and companionship.
Punto Zero. Free care and support for adults with mental health needs and psychiatric conditions, especially those who lack the money or support to receive treatment.
Bread of Life (Pan de Vida). We visit low-income neighborhoods to deliver groceries, clothing, blankets and basic necessities. We also celebrate with families on days like Children's Day and Christmas, bringing joy where it rarely arrives.
New Creation (La Nueva Creación). A place of protection and care for children and teenagers who have been abandoned or left without support, where they can grow up safe, heard, respected and loved.
Life 360 (Vida 360). Turning 18 does not mean you stop needing help. We walk with young people leaving our shelter through free education, job placement and shared independent housing, so they can build a stable, independent and hopeful future.
This story is still being written
It all started with a few grandparents who did not want to be alone. Today it is a chain that reaches children, young people, adults and the elderly from many places.
We have seen abandonment, hunger, illness and poverty up close. We have gone through moments when it seemed impossible to go on. And we have learned that helping does not always mean having every answer: often, it simply means staying beside the person who is suffering.
Because no one should face abandonment, hunger, illness or a lack of opportunity alone.
Every link in this chain is a person who chose not to look away. Today we invite you to be the next one. Your gift becomes a meal on the table, a blanket on a cold night, and a hand on the shoulder of someone who thought no one was coming.
Our story began by keeping company with those who were alone. With you, it can keep reaching those who are still waiting.
