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Support Contreras-Ramirez Family during COVID-19

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Dear GoFundMe Supporters,

With heavy hearts, we wanted to share that Daniela's mom passed away May 21, 2020 after sudden health complications that required her to enter into the ICU a few days before.

Please help recirculate this GoFundMe on your social media platforms today, the family will need the resources cover the cost of Ms. Irene Ramirez's funeral. 

Daniela will be sharing a personal message soon. For now she's taking much needed time & space to grieve with her family. And she's also figuring out what happens next with her mother's final preparations. Good friends from the domestic worker movement have offered to help Daniela  understand the burial/cremation process and choose a funeral home soon. 

Thank you for all your incredible support these past few months, sharing your resources during a moment when the entire world is being challenged by this pandemic. 

With love & light,
Irene, Felicia, Marrisa, Allison, & Marzena 

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Daniela Contreras is a single mother of an intelligent, beautiful 7-year old daughter. She is a compassionate caregiver for her aging mother. She is a DREAMer (DACA recipient). She was a domestic worker for almost two decades, and in the past several years organized to win dignity and respect in the care and cleaning sector. Daniela and her family are incredible Mexicana-New Yorkers. And right now their lives are being severely upended by COVID-19 and they need all the support we can give them. 


At the start of this month Daniela had to stop working temporarily due to intensifying family caregiving responsibilities. Her mother, Irene, has been diabetic for 20 years, is a cancer survivor, and every day is still fighting for her life. The family spent Christmas in the hospital. They have been repeatedly asked by doctors if they have started to prepare her advance directives and end of life care plan. The family did not have the resources to hire someone to care for Irene at home, and ensure that she could be safe from falls and other potential hazards during the day. Daniela made a truly difficult decision to stop working at the beginning of the month. And while necessary it’s been ill timed with the global Coronavirus pandemic that has hit New York City hard. 


This past week Daniela has also become sick herself - potentially with COVID-19. Daniela lives with her sister Minerva, with their young children, Mikaela and Gael who are both 7 years old, and their mother Irene. Daniela is doing her best to self-quarantine and recover from her illness, but she has still had to find the energy to cook meals, help the children participate in their school’s online classes, and get her mother to the clinic for dialysis. Minerva, who is a nanny, was laid off at the end of last week. And after purchasing her medication, Daniela found she was down to the family’s last $3.


A group of her close friends immediately shared emergency funds with her and delivered her groceries for this week. And now we are fundraising so that she has enough resources for the next four months to take care of her family. The family’s monthly expenses add up to $6,000 per month. More than ⅓ of this amount goes towards vital medication her mother needs for her severe liver failure condition. Without this medication Irene is unable to regulate her memory, mood, speech, and sleep. Other major monthly expenses include their monthly rent and utilities ($1700), groceries & household supplies ($850), and dependable & safe transportation to and from the dialysis clinic a few times each week ($270). 


Daniela, Minerva, and Irene have spent many years caring for what’s most precious to other New York families: their children and their homes. In the five years I have known and worked with Daniela, I have witnessed her rise up and organize powerfully with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). She has supported domestic worker #MeToo survivors to fight workplace sexual harassment, and was integral to creating and launching ALIA, the first portable benefits fund for house cleaners. The Contreras-Ramirez family has made incredible contributions that have furthered the safety and wellbeing of so many others. Now more than ever, at this difficult time in their lives, it’s up to us to step up to care for them.
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Donations 

  • SUSANNAH DYEN
    • $50
    • 4 yrs
  • Zenaida y Juan Leon
    • $100
    • 5 yrs
  • Yomara Velez
    • $100
    • 5 yrs
  • Harris Rachel
    • $20
    • 5 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $25
    • 5 yrs
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Fundraising team (3)

Irene Jor
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY
Daniela Contreras
Beneficiary
Marrisa Senteno
Team member

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