HIALEAH, Fla. – Amid a wave of migrant landings in South Florida, including three separate landings in the Florida Keys Thursday, a Hialeah church has opened its doors to help.
Images of rickety boats full of migrants, that we’ve seen several times over the last few months, have had an impact on many in South Florida.
On Thursday, South Floridians brought donations to Iglesia Rescate, an evangelical church in Hialeah that is helping migrants who’ve reached Florida, some of them saying they were once migrants themselves and that’s why they they felt moved to help.
A 27-year-old Cuban woman, who did not wish to be identified, waited for the doors to open again so she can have a place to stay for the night.
In Spanish, she told Local 10 News reporter Cody Weddle that there’s “nothing” back home in Cuba. She arrived eight months ago.
“We are trying to make everything possible, at least for them to have shelter, to sleep in and to have a shower, and to have a place to you know, that’s the way we are doing it,” Pastor David Monduy said.
The church has converted classrooms into bedrooms and has even brought in mobile showers.
“I think we all have to do our part and not just for our countrymen, but for Cubans and Haitians too,” Venezuelan immigrant Nexy Rodríguez, who donated to the church Thursday, said in Spanish.
The church, located at 951 E. 4th Ave., plans to continue accepting donations.