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She's walked in their shoes
On the line a woman is crying for help. "My life is over," the caller says in Spanish. After listening for several more moments, Calderon learns the woman's husband has just turned her and her three children out onto the street and she has nobody to turn to. Despite her best efforts to stay professional and provide the caller with the resources she needs, a sympathetic tear runs down Calderon's cheek. "This kind of thing happens every day," said Calderon, secretary at the Simi Valley Community Care Center, a nonprofit organization started in 2002 to help low-income residents in need. "It happened to me once and I've been helping women deal with the same problems ever since."
For the past six years, the mother of two has devoted her time at the care center to providing people in need with "a hand to hold and a shoulder to lean on," she said. Calderon has found homes for the homeless and provided food for the hungry, all while raising a family on her own until 2005, when she remarried. "The care center changed my life and now I am giving back to it so others can have the same happy ending that I had," she said. Tough times Seven years ago a divorce left Calderon, a full-time mom at the time, on the streets without a car, a home or a job. With her two children to care for, she sought aid from her sister in Van Nuys and eventually moved into her house. Although she found temporary relief there, Calderon returned home one day to find her sister had vanished without a word. She wouldn't find out until years later that her sister- who had five children of her own- had left because of the pressures of the crowded household. "I came home one day and there was nobody home. All the drawers were empty and the furniture was gone. I was out on the street again," Calderon said. When she discovered the Community Care Center in 2001, Calderon had lived in more than four different homes in less than a year, she said. With her selfesteem at an all-time low and her future going nowhere, she felt as if she was "floating in limbo" with "nobody to hold onto." At times, she said, she couldn't even look her kids in the eye. "Nobody would give me a job and my family wasn't helping either. I needed a miracle," Calderon said. "The care center was a godsend." Family effort Calderon's two children, Felix, 24, and Cynthia Santos, 21, now volunteer at the care center along with their mother. After going through such hard times, the family feels it's important to be together at this point in their mother's life, Santos said. "My mom doesn't want me to go through the same things she did. I know she will support me in everything I do, so I want to be close to her," said Santos, who has a 2-year-old daughter of her own. The Rev. Maria Hamilton, an ordained pastor at United Methodist Church of Simi Valley and the founder of the care center, recalled the first time she spoke with Calderon. "She reminded me of myself," Hamilton said. "I came to this country alone with my two children looking for the American dream. I found it after many years of struggle and I wanted to see the same happen for her." People come to the center from all over to get legal advice, learn English, use computers, find work and even find somewhere to live, Hamilton said. The center is more than just a helping hand, she said- it's a place where people of all ages can find spiritual healing from others who've gone through the same struggles. The doors to the Simi Valley Community Care Center are open to everyone. Call (805) 520-7965 for more information. |
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