He’s blind and about to age out of his special needs program. Here’s how you can help
The pandemic ruined Geneive Hall’s carefully patchworked childcare plans.
Before COVID-19 forced her 21-year-old son, Javaun Garrick, into virtual school, the 48-year-old single mother had a plan. She’d get up early and walk a few blocks from their Opa-locka apartment to catch a bus to her job in the environmental services department at Mount Sinai Hospital.
A neighbor who worked the night shift would stay with her kids until their rides came — a school bus to the North Dade Center for Modern Language for her 11-year-old daughter, and the Miami-Dade County Special Transportation Service that took Garrick to his special needs program at Miami Central High School.
Garrick is legally blind and cognitively impaired, so Hall makes sure he always has someone around him.
Then came COVID. Now Garrick is in virtual school after an outbreak at his campus, and Hall has to wait for one of her friends and neighbors to show up and keep him company while he does his lessons. That makes her miss her bus, so she has to take a Lyft to make it to work on time — a $25 trip one-way.
Her secondary childcare option, weekend and holiday day camps and educational programs with the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, have also been drastically scaled back (or canceled altogether) due to the pandemic.
That leaves Hall in an impossible position. She works six days a week, but Garrick needs care seven days a week. She’s considering applying for a leave of absence from work to care for her son, but she worries about how she’d pay her bills without a steady paycheck.
“My toughest part is my rent,” she said. “If I don’t work every day, I can’t pay my rent. But the salary I have isn’t enough to pay someone to care for him.”
Garrick was nominated by his caseworker at Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, Betty Chavarria. She called him “the sweetest, caring and most respectful student I have worked with,” and said he’s loved by everyone on staff.
In the four years she’s worked with him, Chavarria said she’s seen Garrick come out of his shell. He excelled at a recent internship at First Tee of Miami, where he taught children to play adaptive golf.
“I loved working with Javaun witnessing his growth as an individual and a professional,” she wrote in an email.
Hall and her son were both born in Jamaica. She moved to the U.S. when he was 8, and he followed when he was 14 to seek better healthcare. Doctors discovered his eye problems when he was in middle school and declared him legally blind. He has Myopia Keratoconus, a genetic condition that warps and thins the cornea. He nearly went completely blind in his left eye this summer, a traumatic incident that he still has panic attacks about.
The last seven years have been an obstacle course in finding the right doctors, psychologists, nutritionists and educational programming. Garrick’s father passed away years ago, Hall said. The man she married after him turned out to be abusive to her and her children, she said. Hall had to seek counseling and help from a domestic violence shelter.
The apartment in Opa-locka the three of them have shared for the last year is a hard-won slice of freedom for the family. Family pictures, including Garrick beaming at his high school graduation, dot the walls. A Christmas tree brushes the ceiling in the living room and monogrammed red felt stockings line the wall.
“It’s tough, but I try to do the best for my kids every single day,” Hall said. “If I’m not there, who’s going to be there for them?”
Garrick is in his final year of a program at Miami Central that focuses on life skills. When he graduates in the spring, his mother has “no idea” what’s next.
Hall applied for citizenship for her son, who is a legal resident of the U.S., as well as guardianship. The paperwork for both is delayed due to the pandemic, she said, leaving her in limbo.
If he became a citizen, he would have access to Medicaid funds and care. For now, Hall pays most medical bills and co-pays out of pocket, although her coverage through her work health insurance should kick in soon.
“He worries about his eye, he worries about his nightmares, he worries about everything. And I do mean everything,” she said.
From Wish Book this year, Hall would appreciate financial help covering her bills, as well as driving lessons so she can eventually get a car and drive her children to school and herself to work.
Garrick loves playing video games on his Nintendo Switch console (his current favorite is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) and drawing with colored pencils. He asked for more games to play, like Mario Kart or Super Mario, and art supplies. He’d also like a TV for his bedroom, a new linen set for his full-sized bed and new clothes.
The family could also use a new set of towels, a blender for smoothies and a dinnerware set for four.
HOW TO HELP
Wish Book is trying to help hundreds of families in need this year. To donate, pay securely at MiamiHerald.com/wishbook. For information, call 305-376-2906 or email wishbook@miamiherald.com. (The most requested items are often laptops and tablets for school, furniture, and accessible vans.) Read more at MiamiHerald.com/wishbook.
