It was the only place with free Internet access.
After the non-profit launched and opened the Wimauma Opportunity Center in 2016, workers installed free Wi-Fi access for anyone who came to the center. But Gutierrez said she started wondering why the same Internet access offered by airports and hotels couldn’t be made available at a community level.
Through a partnership with the Allegany Franciscan Ministries Common Good Initiative, the organization launched Wimauma Connects!, an initiative that has created a mesh of 15 antennas between two service portals that serve as access points along State Road 674 from 7th Street to Edina Street.
The first phase, which Gutierrez said cost about $50,000, will provide free Internet access at a number of businesses: Taqueria El Sol, Aquarius Water, A&A Tire Shop, Swiger’s Crates and Boxes, La Fruteria Mexicana, Ana’s Restaurant, Ali’s Snacks, Centro America, Royal Kutz and El Mariachi Loco.
It is much needed.
According to the latest estimates, Wimauma’s population is 83 percent Hispanic or Latino. More than 31 percent of the population lives in poverty and only 52 percent have attained a high school diploma or higher.
“This is about access in a community where people have been marginalized in so many ways,” Gutierrez said. “Folks are even more disadvantaged because of wages, income, distance and the rural area.”
Free Internet access, said Juan Pipoli, president of Phone-Link FL, which installed the network, will be key to helping people advance.
“That’s the only thing that’s going to empower people,” he said.
Cheri Wright-Jones, vice president of Allegany Franciscan Ministries, said the improved access could lead to better education outcomes and parents being able to better help their kids with finishing homework.
“They have access to the Internet, which means they now have access to the world,” she said.
Bobby Rodriguez, the owner of the Royal Kutz barbershop, was born and raised in Wimauma. He grew up without the Internet. The partnership, he said, will particularly help the community’s Spanish-speaking population.
Instead of paying people to transfer money or send money, “they can do it on their tablets and computer themselves," he said.
By the end of the second phase, Gutierrez said the non-profit expects to provide free Internet to more than 200 households, or approximately a third of the community. The organization will have access to data on how many people are logged in at once and monitor how frequently it is being used. But she said, the investment will see its real return when citizens do more for Wimauma.
“We don’t believe in charity,” Gutierrez said. “We help to open doors. Nobody needs anybody’s charity. We need change.”
©2019 the Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
