“Wow! Oh my God!” Mrs. Cindy Guevara, a single mother of three children, never tired of repeating herself, who, as an early Mother’s Day gift, settled in a two-bedroom apartment, thanks to the non-profit organization, Holliday’s Helping Hands.
Cindy, who spent most of her youth in and out of the foster system and as an adult in and out of the homeless shelter system, was surprised when Katina Holliday, executive director of Holliday’s Helping Hands ” opened the door to apartment 207 on Rowan Avenue, in East Los Angeles.
Daughter of a Guatemalan father and Mexican mother, Cindy Guevara cried when she saw the crib where little Nathan, 11 months old, will sleep and the room of her girls, Star and Heather, 10 and 12 years old, respectively.
“This is the best Mother’s Day gift for me,” Cindy said. “The truth is, I wasn’t expecting this big surprise.”
In fact, he shed tears after seeing Katina Holliday and her collaborators show him the refrigerator full of food for his children, and later, when he received a camera as a gift.
Guevara, who is a cosmetologist and works in Beverly Hills, told La Opinión that she wants to start a career in photography.
Grateful for the opportunity to have a safe roof for her children, Cindy Guevara praised that at Holliday’s Helping Hands they taught her to grow as a person in all her battles.
“When we enter there we arrive as broken women and mothers, but they teach us how to be strong for our families to be a better mother and person,” Guevara said. “The mysteries of God are fair and I always trusted that I would succeed with my children.”
Now, Cindy Guevara declares herself free of ties to celebrate Mother’s Day with her children, after having overcome mental and physical abuse with the man she lived with.
“What I went through was a lot,” he declared. “She was tired of the abuse and always tried to find help, but it was very difficult… there wasn’t much.”
However, a doctor from the clinic she visited helped her emerge from the home where she lived and where her life was in danger.
“I had to run with my children and they put me in this program [de Holliday’s Helping Hands] where, at first I felt alone, but then I met very good people who I consider to be part of my family.”
Mother’s Day is one of the most important and special celebrations in the world. In Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize it is celebrated on May 10, and in the United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela and Honduras, it is celebrated on the second Sunday of the month of May. .
“Of course, it’s always Happy Mother’s Day to all moms,” said Katina Holliday, executive director of the organization that helped Cindy. “We are what the world needs to survive. Because if no mother does not have children, no one would exist on this earth.”
Katina described that Holliday’s Helping Hands was established in 2018, in a home in South Los Angeles, and came from a vision of wanting to help single mothers who were incarcerated, single mothers in general, and families.
“We have helped more than 300 families since the beginning with permanent housing,” Holliday told La Opinión.
The nonprofit is partnered with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health program, so when a case is referred to them, families are referred to the
Intensive Case Management Service (ICMS) providers.
That way people get a link to housing, transportation, therapists and case managers.
“If the person or families remain during the course of the program, they will receive permanent housing,” said Holliday, who follows the example and legacy left by his grandmother, Dessie Payne, and his mother, Viola Holliday.
One of the stories that caught her attention the most was when her grandmother took care of a boy named Cheyenne every day. She grew up observing that she gave him three meals a day and helped him with money.
“My grandmother helped and took care of everyone in whatever they needed and her DNA is embedded in me; That is why I like to help mothers like Cindy, and the resources we have, in addition to being a process of educating the person, is a support that brings some peace and joy to their lives.”
That’s exactly what happened with Cindy Guevara.
After crying, a smile came to her face and, sitting on a bed in her new two-bedroom home, like a mother who has always dreamed of giving the best to her children, she kissed and hugged her three children.
The “Nuevo Amanecer” apartment project where Cindy now lives with her three children was developed by East LA Community Corporation (ELACC). It is a building of 61 one-, two- and three-bedroom affordable housing units reserved for homeless veterans and low-income families.
Tenants in the building will pay rents ranging from $545 to $1,260 per month, according to a staff report to California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. “Families like Cindy’s will pay 30% of their income,” said Katina Holliday. In concrete figures, it would be something similar to $500 per month.