Women's Homeless Shelter's Family Photo Shoot Day Provides Relief for Its Residents

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Eufracina Soler and her daughter, Kiara Fortuna Soler, spend most of their time going back and forth between hospital appointments in the Bronx and the homeless shelter where they live in the East Village. So they were relieved on Thursday to be able to get their makeup done by professionals and pose together for a skilled photographer in Tompkins Square Park.

It was Family Photo Shoot day at the Sarah Powell Huntington House, a homeless shelter on East 10th Street across from the park. The house, owned by the Women's Prison Association, was established as a shelter for women recently released from prison. Over the years, it has expanded into a place for women and their children, like Eufracina and Kiara, who have no where else to go.

Eufracina and Kiara have lived there for a year and a half after their cousins in the Bronx kicked them out of their home because they couldn't pay rent.

The 51-year-old from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and her 19-year-old daughter, who was born during a previous stay in the states, traveled just the two of them to the U.S. in May 2015. They left behind Eufracina's husband and three older sons in their 20s.

Kiara was born with an extremely rare chromosomal disorder in which her sixth chromosome is incomplete, Eufracina explained. It affects Kiara's physical and mental abilities, and Santo Domingo's medical care wasn't helping her grow, Eufracina said. So she made the decision to get her daughter the best care possible in the U.S.

"It's really stressful," Eufracina told Patch through a Spanish translator. "Now at least it's better, she's been improving, but it's been a struggle. She's suffered a lot."

The two of them have back-to-back doctors' appointments at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx every three days, and the appointments swallow the entire day, Eufracina said. Kiara has so many doctors Eufracina couldn't remember them all: a neurologist, opthamologist, homeopathic specialist, adolescence specialist, orthodontist, dietician and the list goes on.

They have to take two trains and a bus to get from the shelter to the hospital. They receive supplemental security income (SSI), a Federal income supplement program, to pay for the astronomical medical bills, Eufracina said.

Kiara has had three seizures, including one when she was just 3 months old, Eufracina said. She had a particularly intense seizure in 2015 which prompted Eufracina to move them to the U.S.

"The doctors here have more resources and skills than the ones in Santo Domingo," Eufracina said.

Now Kiara is on medication for her seizures, which have been under control since. But she suffers from deep depression after leaving her friends and family in Santo Domingo, Eufracina said.

"When she was thrown out of her cousins' house, she suffered a lot. She felt all of that stress and was really, really upset," Eufracina said. "She's under a lot of medication. When you have a child like this, it's a lot of fighting because it's such a rare condition."

Kiara struggles in school because she is too intellectually advanced for her classes at a public school for special needs students, Eufracina said. Yet the language barrier keeps her from advancing like she did in Santo Domingo. Kiara doesn't know English.

When asked if Kiara has friends in the U.S., Eufracina very matter-of-factly said, "No."

For a pair that struggles to get by, they were gleaming on Family Photo Shoot day. Eufracina radiated pride in Kiara as she gently brushed her daughter's straight, black hair to the side to prepare her for their shoot. The two of them posed together on Thursday afternoon for a series of photos all around the park.

"Weeeskeee!" Eufracina bellowed as they posed in front of a clump of pink flowers in Tompkins Square Park.

"Whiskey" is the word they say in the Dominican Republic to smile for photos, like Americans say "Cheese!" she explained.

Kiara had a broad smile on her face as her mother joked how they should be posing like supermodels.

"Ah, que linda, que linda," Eufracina admired her daughter's photos in the camera's preview screen. "Linda" means pretty and lovely in Spanish.

"In addition to otherwise expensive portraits of their children and some pampering, which every woman deserves once in a while, family photo day is a chance for staff, volunteers, and clients to celebrate the importance of family and the success our clients have already achieved," Diana McHugh, communications representative for the Women's Prison Association, told Patch. "Everyone needs a cheerleader ,and this day is a chance for all participants to feel beautiful, valued, and like family."

Eufracina and Kiara have no plans to return to Santo Domingo, even though they are clearly painfully missing their family members. They are waiting for the day when they get their own apartment in New York. Eufracina is working with a case worker at the Women's Prison Association to make that happen. And when it does, they're going to sign the lease in Kiara's name.

"She's really, really smart. She's an adult now," Eufracina said.

Photo Credit: Sarah Kaufman/Patch