Volunteers will be ready to get you into any one of the remarkable vehicles in the Lincoln collection. With your support, Doral Lincoln will donate $20 for every household participating in the Test Drive event. In addition, our friends at Doral Lincoln will be presenting Kristi House with a very much-needed gift. Please join us at Doral Lincoln, 9000 NW 12 Street, Doral 33172 with Rep. Jeanette Nuñez – Florida House of Representatives, Mayor Manuel Maroño – City of Sweetwater, and Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz – Miami-Dade County, District 12, at 12 noon for the presentation of a van donated on behalf of Doral Lincoln for the children and families of Kristi House.

We are also looking for more volunteers. We are offering 25 hours of community service for students needing summer hours. This is a great opportunity for students of ALL ages to get involved with Kristi House and help end child sexual abuse in our community. Please contact Mary Faraldo to volunteer or for more details.

Thank you for your continued support! We look forward to seeing you!

The event Host Committee for the 2013 Breaking the Silence included Michelle & Ken Charles, Bobbie Jones-Wilfork, Lourdes Leon-Vega & Dr. Otto Vega, Loretta & Miguel Nido, Valerie & Cesar Pazmino, Dr. Zandra Rucker and Judy & Juan Trescastro. Fifty-seven Table Captains and community leaders each filled tables of 10 for the major awareness- and fund-raising event.

Nelson Diaz, President of Kristi House Board welcomed guests, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle highlighted Kristi House’s 17-year journey to the present and the unique public-private partnership working on behalf of child sexual abuse and exploitation victims. Executive Director Trudy Novicki presented the vision of Kristi House for the future, and what it means to open Miami’s first safe house for girls who have been victims of sex trafficking.

Guests also heard from survivors, including a special 31-year-old mother “Kristi” who told her compelling story about overcoming trauma she endured. Crediting her therapist and Kristi House Board Member, Dr. Andrea Loeb, for helping her to heal and recover. Another survivor Kathy Andersen—who prefers the term “Thriver” to “Survivor” and who is an international success & wellbeing coach, leadership expert, award-winning author and speaker—shared her odyssey of overcoming familial childhood sexual abuse for many years.

“We launched Breaking the Silence because we believe that as a society we are finally seeing widespread recognition of child sexual abuse as the public health epidemic it is,” Kristi House Executive Director Trudy Novicki said. “You can hardly pick up a newspaper or see the news without hearing a story about child sexual abuse or exploitation. People are speaking out.”

In addition, a talented staff member, Sarah Gali, and her brother Frank Gali, performed two songs, “The Climb” and “Can’t Help to Fall in Love with You.”

Kristi House was founded 17 years ago to bring together the legal, medical and emotional support services needed to help child sexual abuse victims and their non-offending family members. Kristi House serves as the Children’s Advocacy Center for all of Miami-Dade County, working closely with seven other agency partners.

Kristi House is located in the Health District at 1265 NW 12 Avenue, next to the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital campus. Its south facility is located on U.S. 1 and 152nd and its north facility is located at 18441 NW and 2nd Avenue. Founded in 1996, Kristi House has served more than 10,000 victims of child sexual abuse and their families. Thousands more are reached every year with education and prevention outreach programs. Services include case coordination/case management, therapy, comprehensive assessments, transportation, advocacy and emergency assistance. Visit www.kristihouse.org for more details.

Sandy Skelaney and Junior League of Miami President Katie Lane-Arriola

Sandy was joined by members of her family, her Kristi House colleagues and Board members, along with more than 300 attendees, at Jungle Island. Sandy was in good company with two other remarkable women who were honored this year: Secretary of Florida’s Juvenile Justice Department Wansley Walters, and the CEO of Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, Virginia Jacko.

The Junior League described Sandy’s profound contributions on behalf of girls who are commercial sexual exploitation victims:

Sandy Skelaney has changed the landscape in South Florida for girls bought and sold in the sex trade, a $32-billion-a year industry. These children are far below the age of consent in our state, yet up until recently, treated as criminals rather than victims of commercial sexual exploitation at the hands of sex traffickers.

In 2007 Sandy called upon Kristi House, home of the Orlowitz-Lee Children’s Advocacy Center for Miami-Dade, to recognize these were victims of child sexual abuse. It was a startling awareness that domestic children were being trafficked in our own community, and that no services nor safe housing existed. Sandy brought together police and more than two dozen agencies that, often unwittingly, came into contact with trafficked children, and created a ground swelling of awareness raising and action locally and throughout the state.

Miami now has Kristi House’s Project GOLD, a leading program in the country for this high-risk, extremely vulnerable population, and has just opened a safe house with specialized services to help girls escape “the life” on the streets and obtain critical intervention and mental health services.

Florida now has a Safe Harbor Law, and dozens of agencies throughout the state have been amending protocols to be able to address the specific needs of this population.

Sandy and Lauren Harrison Genovese, Kristi House Vice President and past president of the Junior League.

This is all thanks to Sandy’s vision which fueled Kristi House’s advocacy on behalf of this previously overlooked population of child victims. Sandy’s understanding of the issue from her previous work with two renowned anti-trafficking organizations prior to moving to Miami formed the basis of Project GOLD – Girls Owning their Lives and Dreams. Dedicated to helping child victims of sexual exploitation, nearly 300 sexually exploited girls ages 11 to 17 have received services in the past five years under Sandy’s leadership.

This safe house will enable children to escape dangerous lives on the streets and at the hands of pimps and johns. The first of its kind in Miami, perhaps statewide, the house officially opened on Monday, April 1st at 12:23 p.m.

For those who can help stock the home, a Wish List has been created on Amazon.com.

We invite you to shop online for those furnishings and provisions most needed now. On Amazon.com, go to “Wish List” on the top menu and search for “Kristi House Shelter.” You will see an array of personal and household items to choose from.

When girls come in to shelter, they will need sweatsuits, flip flops, pajamas, socks and slippers. All sizes are needed and these can be purchased anywhere along with toiletry basics for girls.

Monetary donations are also being accepted as well. Click here to make a donation to support operating and professional staffing costs at the shelter. Thank you for your support.

Kindly RSVP to 305-662-8655 x374 or Mary Faraldo at Kristi House.

Years later, I discovered she was protecting me, keeping me safe from the child sexual predators she knew could be respected pillars of the community, active in their religious organizations, role models for the family man. She knew because her own father was exactly such a predator.

“E” was a hero to many. A man with only a third grade education, he spoke seven languages and employed a good percentage of the small town in Italy where he lived and owned a factory. The village priest often came to visit, a grateful man because E paid for the new roof the church so badly needed. When the Nazis made leaving the country imperative, the priest hid money and jewelry under his robes, easily crossed the border, and deposited them in a Swiss bank. E managed to use some of these funds to get much of his extended family – about 30 people – out of Italy during World War II.

E began sexually abusing his daughter when she was just 10 years old. He told her it was her fault. He told her nobody would believe her. He warned her that the family – five brothers and her mother – would be left penniless if he were not around and he threatened to leave if she did not accede to his abuse. What could a child of 10, then 11, then 12… and so on, do?

My mom, like so many others – including the men who so bravely testified in the Jerry Sandusky trial earlier this year — suffered in silence.

Financially successful, E bought a home on posh Star Island and a hotel on South Beach. When the family moved to South America, he again started his manufacturing business and launched his sons into very successful careers of their own. He made the major contribution necessary to build the synagogue in the city where they lived; of course, E is buried in the place of honor at the front gate of its cemetery.

The abuse stopped when mom, standing in the window of a high-rise hotel, threatened to jump; E understood that she meant it. When she married my father, mom decided not to tell him for one simple reason: she truly thought her new husband would simply kill E.

In fact, she told no one for over 50 years. Mom created a home, raised three children and doted on her grandchildren, keeping her dark secret until she unexpectedly survived a serious illness at the age of 66. Then, bravely and calmly, my mother told me, my brothers and sister in law, and our extended family. We all just cried.

To her enduring sorrow, some of her brothers could not believe this story about their hero. To her own enduring shame, she cannot accept that she did not ask for help; she cannot forgive herself for being a na•ve little girl. And to her enduring disbelief, she cannot understand how any mother could be complicit in this criminal behavior, as she thinks her mother might have been. Now 85, my mom suffers her abuse every day.

Being the real hero in our family, however, mom made sure that I would not have such a story to tell.

Mom never one time left me alone with E. She always emphasized personal boundaries and urged me to tell her immediately if I ever felt uncomfortable for any reason. But, leaving nothing to chance, she would not let me spend the night at anyone’s home alone.

Although she had no specific reasons for concern, Mom was willing to endure my abusive teenage threats to protect me from what she knew could be a far greater threat, perhaps sitting right at any dinner table: A hero to many but a child sexual predator nonetheless.

©Anita Cava all rights reserved 12.5.12

Survived by her children, Anita, Robert and Daniella Levine, Richard, and Michael Northrop, as well as her four beloved grandchildren, Eliza (Rachel) Cava, Laura (Jakub) Northrop, Ted Cava and Emily Northrop, her brother Mario Cohen, and many nieces, nephews, and close family too many to mention, many of whom made special efforts to brighten her days with frequent visits. Fanny was also blessed with a close circle of lifelong friends who visited her often in the home she shared for two years with Rob and Daniella.

In December Fanny’s family and friends came together to forever honor Fanny with a Kristi House hand print in plaster that will hang on the walls of the Children’s Advocacy Center. Fanny was a survivor of child sexual abuse who did not tell anyone her story until age 65. She and her family started the Fanny Cava Fund at Kristi House to help children know that their story is believed and that it is not their fault. Her deep love and selfless devotion to her children, grandchildren, and friends is a priceless legacy for us all. She will be always loved and deeply missed. Donations in her memory can be made online (click here) or by sending a check to Kristi House, 1265 NW 12 Avenue, Miami, FL 33136.

The Annual Client Holiday Party took place Dec. 8, orchestrated by two board members (Thank you Tricia LeClair and Loretta Nido), and legions of volunteers and donors, it was a festive day to remember for our families impacted by child sexual abuse and exploitation. The Kristi House Board of Directors led by President Nelson Diaz extends its heartfelt “thank you” to these generous donors:

(Please contact us if we omitted your name in error!)

Individuals

• Susan & Steven Dandes
• Rachelle & AJ de Moya
• Stephanie Demos
• Nelson Diaz
• Serena Dyer
• Jimmy Ellison
• Frances Feinberg
• Sophie Gotthilf
• Lauren Harrison-Genovese
• De De Hubsch
• Valentina Hubsch
• Maria Luisa Iturregui
• Isabella Kizer
• Donna LeClair
• Loretta Nido
• Jeanette Nuñez
• Carol Novak
• Jenny Oviedo
• Mimi Planas & Eddie Sierra
• John Reynolds
• Mara Sharkly
• Barby Solis

Companies and Organizations

• Anaga Psychotherapy Center
• Bank of America
• Bright Horizons at Camp Carnival Better Together Group
• CABA – Vivian de las Cuevas-Diaz, President
• Deal’s
• DLA Piper
• Eden Roc Renaissance
• Enterprise Holdings
• Episcopal Church of HIaleah
• Federal Correctional Institution, Miami
• FIU Law School
• Isabel
• Juntos Regalando Sonrisas
• Kiwanis of Little Havana
• Laundry System USA, Inc.
• Log Cabin Republicans of Miami
• Mayor Carlos Gimenez Toy Drive
• Miami Herald
• Miami-Dade Commission for Women
• Miami-Dade County IT
• Minuteman Press
• Pinecrest Business Association
• Pinecrest Prep Academy
• PTK Omicron Tau-Miami Dade College
• Regions Bank
• Sol School International
• South Beach Marriott
• South Miami Associates Group Jack & Jill of America
• Southern Florida Concierge Association
• St. Brendan Elementary School
• Tiger & Dragon Martial Arts School
• United Automobile Insurance Company
• Village of Pinecrest Department of Police
• Western Digitech