MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Luz Aquino remembers having to pack all of her belongings. She was in a room she had been sharing with her mother at the Community Partnership for the Homeless in downtown Miami. The two sought refuge there after her father became violent.
Luz, who is 8, loves to read. Her book bag was heavy. She and her mother hopped into a big white van. Despite her mother's pleas, the driver of the van dropped off their belongings at the corner of Northwest Seventh Court and Northwest 17th Street. Then he told them to get out.
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They were outside the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa. Luz watched out for their belongings while her mother went to talk to the nuns. The girl remembers the fear she felt and her mother's anguish when she told her that the shelter was full.
Her mother was forced to call her father for help.
"It was very scary. The street was dirty and there were messy men there," Luz said.
Social workers struggled to help. Luz was born in the U.S., but she has an undocumented mother who doesn't qualify for government aid. Luz's mother turned to local nonprofits for help and support. But those organizations also often struggle with a chronic lack of resources.
A group of leaders of nonprofit organizations, including the Miami Workers Center, hope to change circumstances for girls like Luz. They recently met to discuss the Women & Femme Economic Congress to be held Oct. 1 in Miami Gardens.
Marcia Olivo, of the Miami Workers Center, said the Femme Agenda project's slogan -- "It's time to set a women's economic agenda by us and for us" -- is a call to every activist. Although the project comes at a time when Hillary Clinton is running for president and Raquel Regalado is running for Miami-Dade County mayor, "this is absolutely a nonpartisan effort," Olivo said.
She and other organizers said the project is meant to look out for the best interests of the 17 percent of women, ages 18 to 64, who are living below the poverty line in Florida, according to a 2015 Talk Poverty report.
Angela Diaz-Vidaillet, of the Lodge Certified Domestic Violence Center, was among a dozen women who accepted Oliva's invitation and recently attended a first meeting at Love Is Blind, a restaurant in Coral Gables. She has decades of experience working with domestic violence victims and their children.
"Women need to put away their personal opinions in order to help other women, and unless we put everything aside and work together, it is going to be difficult to see anything change," Diaz-Vidaillet said.
Service Employees International Union representative Natalia Jaramillo said domestic violence and affordable housing are among the issues that the project plans to address, but they are not the only ones. They also want to influence policies related to equal pay, access to child care, quality of health care and public transportation.
"It's an important time for women to demand policies and politics that are favorable to other women in need," Jaramillo said.
Haitian activist Marliene Bastien, of Fanm Ayisyen nam Miyami, Marilyn Fizer, of the Women's Fund, Meena Jagannath, of the Community Justice Project, Cynthia Hernandez, of AFL-CIO and Mayte Canino, of Planned Parenthood, were among the other attendees.
Meanwhile, Luz was dealing with the possibility of being homeless again or ending up in foster care. Her father, an undocumented worker, was being held at Krome Detention Center. Her undocumented mother found work as a housekeeper, but she was having trouble earning enough to keep their tiny one-bedroom apartment.
"I'm having nightmares," Luz said. "Last night, someone in my dream took my mom away and I was in the street all alone."
In search of permanent solutions for girls like Luz, the activists hope to gather at least 100 people from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 1 at Florida Memorial University, 15800 NW 42nd Ave., in Miami Gardens.
To help Luz and her mom, here is a link to their GoFundMe account. For more information on the Femme Agenda event, visit the website or call 305-759-8717.
