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Miami-area church helps hurricane victims in migrant camp

Sep. 28, 2005

NOTE: A UMTV report, photographs and related coverage are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Report
By Nancy E. Johnson*

Some of Hurricane Katrina's poorest victims live in a migrant labor camp
in south Miami-Dade. Most are Mexican, and almost all are jobless now.

"We're trying to survive, whatever we can do," said Romana Vallejo, the
sister of a migrant worker.

South Florida felt the wrath of Katrina the week before she barreled
into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Some areas received 20 inches
of rain in 24 hours.

Fred Grantham appealed to his fellow members at Cutler Ridge United
Methodist Church in Miami to help the farm workers who lost almost
everything to Katrina. The 75-year-old retired architect is a volunteer
with South Dade Migrant Labor Camp, where some 200 families are living.

"There is no work in flooded fields," Grantham said. "Until it dries up
and farmers make decisions on what kind of crop to replace, the migrant
worker has no employment."

Cutler Ridge United Methodist Church collected 400 pounds of beans and
rice for hundreds of these migrant families and brought it to the labor
camp. Women and children accepted the food politely, careful not to take
more than they needed.

"As long as we have beans and rice, we have a meal," Vallejo said.

With fields and nurseries under water, the migrant families don't know
when they'll be able to afford groceries again. They're relying on the
beans and rice to get them through the next few weeks.

"If you're a cook and you do rice at home, you know you put one cup of
dried rice and two cups of water in a pot. You end up with double or
triple the dry rice you put in," Grantham said.

The migrant families have seen worse times. Many will never forget Aug.
24, 1992, when the people of South Miami-Dade felt the fury of Hurricane
Andrew. Houses smashed.  Trees toppled.  Lives changed.

"We survived Andrew," Vallejo said. "We were not prepared for this."

But Cutler Ridge United Methodist Church was prepared to help. Church
members showed up at the labor camp with bags of clothing too. Children
looked through the bags, most choosing only one outfit.

"The same child wears the same shirt to school every day," Grantham
said. "It has to be washed every day because it's the only shirt he
has."

The migrant families are grateful for the church's generosity.

"They always come, thank God. They're really nice people," Vallejo said.

Grantham described the migrant families in similar terms.

"They're a quiet, peaceful people," he said. "You see it in their faces.
You hear them in their Spanish, Mexican language giving praise to the
Lord."

*Johnson is a Florida-based television and print reporter/writer.

News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5474
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org