Getting by was a struggle. Then readers pitched in, and the aid changed their lives
Jackie Fowler-Lewis is a busy young man.
He recently received his certification to become a home inspector. He’s married and the father of three children ages 1, 4 and 6 years old.
He’s also written four books — one on marriage, one self-help book, one on poetry and another on “the unexplained realities of manhood.”
Fowler-Lewis, who grew up in South Florida but has since moved to Orlando, expects to get a county home inspector job in the near future, but he has plans to go into business for himself eventually.
“I want to have my ultimate goal to be to have multiple businesses that I can pass down to my children,” he said.
But everything Fowler-Lewis, 33, has achieved up to now, he did even though the odds were stacked against him from an early age. He is one of many South Florida residents who has been helped by reader donations through Wish Book, the Miami Herald’s holiday giving campaign, now starting its 40th year. Wish Book is a participant in Give Miami Day on Thursday.
When Fowler-Lewis was 9 years old, his mother passed away and his father was “gone with the wind.” Fowler-Lewis was placed in a foster home.
With the guidance of a caring case manager at SOS Children’s Village, a foster care program in Coconut Creek, Fowler-Lewis prospered through his formative years, with a few rough patches along the way, until, at age 15, he was adopted by his house family, William and Nikitress Lewis, a preacher and high school teacher respectively.
He was now part of a family. He was one of eight children living at the Lewis’ home in Coconut Creek.
“It gave me a sense of pride,” Fowler-Lewis said in 2013, when his story was profiled as part of the annual Wish Book series, highlighting people who could use a helping hand, especially during the holiday season. “Everything changed.”
At the time, Fowler-Lewis was 25 years old and a student at Broward College. Part of Wish Book’s mission is to encourage readers to donate items that people like Fowler-Lewis can use to get on the path to success or at least out of hard times. Readers responded, donating items like a printer and a laptop computer to help him in school and in filling out online job applications.
Eight years later, Fowler-Lewis remains grateful to those who helped him after reading about his life, even though they had never met him.
“It provided the necessary resources to help me succeed. I was extremely pressed financially. The generosity of people is amazing,” he said.
Fowler-Lewis said the books he wrote are based on his life experiences, and can be purchased on Amazon.
“One book is a self-help book. One book is designed to help young married couples and the last book is designed to help young men transition into manhood,” he said.
A grateful family
In their birth country of El Salvador, Ana Alvarez and Juan Acuna were white collar professionals. Alvarez, 48, was an elementary school teacher, and Acuna, 45, worked in administration in the local Fruit of the Loom clothing factory. But in 2007, the wife and husband decided that gangs, which are ubiquitous in the Central American country, had made life too dangerous for them to stay.
Several of Alvarez’s students were either killed by gangs or joined them for their own protection. And so like many, the couple fled their homeland. Alvarez and her husband came to the United States that year as refugees, eventually moving to a small apartment in Hialeah, where they live with their young sons, Mateo, 6, and Juan David, 13.
Now, Alvarez cleans houses and her husband works at a nearby ice cream factory. They’re currently making ends meet, but like many families, they faced financial hardship last year when much of the world put life on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their income dried up as many of Alvarez’s clients, fearing the spread of the virus, asked her not to come clean their homes.
Not only did it stretch their budget just to put food on the table and pay bills, Christmas was approaching, and they worried they wouldn’t have enough money to buy toys for the children.
Last year, Nayade Valbuena, a social worker at the nonprofit Centro Mater, nominated them for Wish Book. After their story ran, the response overwhelmed the family.
“We were really surprised,” Alvarez said. “I couldn’t stop crying.”
One person paid three months of the family’s rent. They received a new couch and love seat. Their old, wobbly kitchen table was replaced by a new one. And, Mateo, who had been sleeping between his mom and dad in their bed, received a bed of his own, now rocking a dinosaur theme.
“When I saw everything, I was excited,” said Mateo, an extremely bright kindergartner at iMater Charter Elementary School in Hialeah. When a Miami Herald reporter and photographer recently visited the family home, Mateo showed off his literacy skills, reading “The Wide-Mouth Frog” as he enthusiastically paced back and forth.
The family also received computers, electronic tablets and many toys for the children. Juan David, who wanted to get a job last year to help his family, said he remains amazed that people he doesn’t know would display such generosity.
“If I ever met them, I would say thank you and God bless them,” the iMater eighth-grader said.
His father agreed.
“I am grateful to all the people who provided this. It changes lives,” Acuna said.
A college student making her way
Deandra Joseph, 24, is a student at Miami Dade College studying biotechnology. She hopes to become a plant biologist when she graduates from Florida International University, which she expects to attend next fall after graduating with an associate’s degree from Miami Dade College next semester.
Like many people featured in Wish Book, Joseph was emerging from a childhood of struggle and challenges when the Miami Herald profiled her story in 2019. She was raised by her grandparents in a loving home in Little Haiti with her brother and sister. Joseph’s mother and father weren’t part of her life.
At times, the day-to-day work of raising young children again was difficult for her grandparents, she said. “But at the end of day, they always made a way for me to continue my education and never giving up,” she said in a recent interview.
Her elementary school years were filled with happy times with her siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and their children. But “things got tough” as she got older, she said. Then, when she was 16, her grandmother passed away from breast cancer, sending her into a depression that made the already struggling student fall even further behind in her studies.
With the help of a mentor from the group Walk in My Shoes, Joseph persisted in her studies and graduated from high school when she was 21.
“It’s been hard, but I finally feel like I’m where I should be,” Joseph told the Herald in 2019, when she was beginning her college career.
At the time, Joseph was living in a home run by a nonprofit called Casa Valentina, which helps homeless young people who’ve aged out of the foster care system find places to live. The group also helped her as she started college.
“Even though I’m homeless and couch surfing, I can still get my education because I really wanted to go back to school,” Joseph, who now lives in her own apartment, said.
Along with her studies, Joseph is also employed at the college as a student assistant. She helps peers navigate the bureaucracy of college life, aiding them in tasks like registering for classes and getting on meal plans.
When she was featured in the 2019 Wish Book series, Joseph said what she really needed were new clothes for job interviews and money for her books, which can cost upwards of $400 per semester, she said.
Readers came through on those items, plus gift cards.
“It made me feel happy to see that there are people out there willing to help, even though they don’t know me, but they know my story,” Joseph said.
At first, she was reluctant to have her life’s story out in the public, but then she realized that talking about her struggles might help others going through similar situations.
“I didn’t want to let people know what I’ve been through, but I learned that it was OK to let people know,” Joseph said.
The experience also allowed her to appreciate the gravity of what happens when people you’ve never met read about your life and care enough to help someone they’ve never met.
“Thank you so much. Even though you don’t know me, you know my story,” Joseph said. “I really appreciate everything you have done.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
