Adversity has struck often during Cliffvonia Rigby’s 34 years. She was sexually abused as a child and raped in her 20s. She and her baby left her mother’s house after a dispute. And she felt forced to sign away custody of her two grade-school-age sons in the hope they would grow up in a better environment.

Now she lives in a room at Miami Rescue Mission with her 2-year-old daughter Elizabeth, eking out a living by working at a daycare center and volunteering at a Fort Lauderdale church.

At CharLee Preschool & Childcare in Oakland Park, “I teach them their ABCs, their shapes and colors,” she says. ”We do circle time, where we paint, paste cutouts, whatever comes to mind, just give them paper and let them go.”

Then she adds: “I did not see myself helping children. God opened this door. I just went through it.”

Rigby was born into a difficult family situation in Freeport, the Bahamas. At age 9, she says she was sexually abused by a close family friend. Along with her mother and sister, she moved to Chicago and then, at age 14, to South Florida, where she lived in various places in Broward County.

She graduated from high school at age 17, then considered college. But she couldn’t get financial aid because of her status as a non-citizen, so that plan was scuttled.

Rigby says she has been raped several times, the most recent assault coming in her late 20s. That history probably defines her in ways she can’t explain, she says, but it is not all of who she is. “I want people to know me, not to feel sorry for me,” she says, adding that she doesn’t mind discussing these tragic events because “I just learned that if you don’t get things out, then you won’t heal.”

In her late 20s, Rigby was living with her mother and two sons, Jeremiah and Isiah. But the home became tense as mother and daughter argued constantly, and Rigby feared violence. She was working a low-paying job, though, so she didn’t have enough money to move out.

She wanted what was best for her children, she says, so she made the difficult choice to sign a legal document granting guardianship of Jeremiah and Isiah to her ex-husband’s mother. “I wanted them somewhere where they wouldn’t have to witness [the arguments],” she says.

Several years later, Elizabeth was born. Rigby felt the girl’s father was not on the “same path” as she was, and so they separated. Now she is raising Elizabeth on her own.

Recently, Rigby says, she and Elizabeth left her mother’s house after a dispute. They had no place to stay, so they spent a couple weeks in a hotel, which quickly drained Rigby’s meager savings.

Now, she stays at the Miami Rescue Mission, which has several shelters in South Florida that help the needy and homeless.

She volunteers on weekends at Christian Life Center, helping and playing with small children. There, she has found comfort in “people that you know trust in Christ.”

At CharLee Preschool & Childcare, where she has worked since 2020, she does more than just teach numbers and letters. “I feed them, I change their diapers, and let them go off and play,” she says. Rigby glows when she talks about her work with children, a true passion she hopes to continue.

At Miami Rescue Mission, where Rigby has stayed since August, all residents must show pay stubs, and outline a plan of savings to improve their situations. Residents are allowed to stay for up to six months.

Joyce Benjamin, the case manager assigned to Rigby through Miami Rescue Mission, says she is “doing real good with the savings, people sometimes come into the program and don’t have a good habit of saving money.”

Benjamin describes the goal of the program this way: “to get them into affordable housing and able to maintain it.” She is confident Rigby will succeed. And so she recommended Rigby for Wishbook.

Rigby would like not only educational toys for her youngest child, but also a tablet to fill with apps to help her daughter learn.

How to help

To help this nominee and 150 others who are in need this year:

▪ To donate, use the coupon found in the newspaper or pay securely online through www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook

▪ For more 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 all Wish Book stories on www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook

This story was produced in conjunction with FIU’s South Florida Media Network

This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 9:00 AM.